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Uto Cestamcnts
UNDER THE EDITORSHIP OF
The Rev. CHARLES AUGUSTUS BRIGGS, D.D.
Professor of Theological Ettcyclopedia and Symbolics
Union Theological Seminary, New York
The Rev. SAMUEL ROLLES DRIVER, D.D.
Regius Professor of Hebrew, Oxford
The Rev. ALFRED PLUMMER, M.A., D.D.
Late Master of University College, Durham
The International
Critical Commentary
On the Holy Scriptures of the Old and
New Testaments
EDITORS' PREFACE
THERE are now before the public many Commentaries,
written by British and American divines, of a popular
or homiletical character. The Cambridge Bible for
Schools, the Handbooks for Bible Classes and Private Students,
The Speaker's Comme7itary, The Popular Commentary (Schaff),
The Expositor's Bible, and other similar series, have their
special place and importance. But they do not enter into the
field of Critical Biblical scholarship occupied by such series of
Commentaries as the Kurzgefasstes exegetisches Handbuch zum
A. T ; De Wette's Kurzgefasstes exegetisches Handbuch zum
N. T. ; Meyer's Kritisch-exegetischer Xom?nentar; Keil and
Delitzsch's Biblischer Commentar iXber das A. T. ; Lange's
Theologisch-homiletisches Bibelwerk ; Nowack's Handkommentar
zum A. T. ; Holtzmann's Handkommentar zufn N. T Several
of these have been translated, edited, and in some cases enlarged
and adapted, for the English-speaking public ; others are in
process of translation. But no corresponding series by British
or American divines has hitherto been produced. The way has
been prepared by special Commentaries by Cheyne, EUicott,
Kalisch, Lightfoot, Perowne, Westcott, and others; and the
time has come, in the judgment of the projectors of this enter-
prise, when it is practicable to combine British and American
scholars in the production of a critical, comprehensive
Commentary that will be abreast of modern biblical scholarship,
and in a measure lead its van.
The International Critical Commentar
Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons of New York, and Messrs.
T. & T. Clark of Edinburgh, propose to publish such a series
of Commentaries on the Old and New Testaments, under the
editorship of Prof. C. A. Briggs, D.D., D.Litt., in America, and
of Prof. S. R. Driver, D.D., D.Litt., for the Old Testament, and
the Rev. Alfred Plummer, D.D., for the New Testament, in
Great Britain.
The Commentaries will be international and inter-confessional,
and will be free from polemical and ecclesiastical bias. They
will be based upon a thorough critical study of the original texts
of the Bible, and upon critical methods of interpretation. They
are designed chiefly for students and clergymen, and will be
written in a compact style. Each book will be preceded by an
Introduction, stating the results of criticism upon it, and discuss-
ing impartially the questions still remaining open. The details
of criticism will appear in their proper place in the body of the
Commentary. Each section of the Text will be introduced
with a paraphrase, or summary of contents. Technical details
of textual and philological criticism will, as a rule, be kept
distinct from matter of a more general character ; and in the
Old Testament the exegetical notes will be arranged, as far as
possible, so as to be serviceable to students not acquainted with
Hebrew. The History of Interpretation of the Books will be
dealt with, when necessary, in the Intfroductions, with critical
notices of the most important literature of the subject. Historical
and Archaeological questions, as well as questions of Biblical
Theology, are included in the plan of the Commentaries, but
not Practical or Homiletical Exegesis. The Volumes will con-
stitute a uniform series.
The International Critical Commentary
ARRANGEMENT OF VOLUMES AND AUTHORS
THE OLD TESTAMENT
GENESIS. The Rev. JOHN Skinner, D.D., Principal and Professor of
Old Testament Language and Literature, College of Presbyterian Church
of England, Cambridge, England. [Now Ready.
eXODUS. The Rev. A. R. S. KENNEDY, D.D., Professor of Hebrew,
University of Edinburgh.
LEVITICUS. J. F. Stenning, M.A., Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford.
NUMBERS. The Rev. G. Buchanan Gray, D.D., Professor of Hebrew,
MansfieVi College, Oxford- [JVow Ready.
DEUTERONOMY. The Rev. S. R. Driver, D.D., D.Litt., Regius Pro-
fessor of Hebrew, Oxford. \Now Ready.
JOSHUA. The Rev. George Adam Smith, D.D., LL.D., Principal of the
University of Aberdeen.
JUDGES. The Rev. George Moore, D.D., LL.D., Professor of Theol-
ogy, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. {Norw Ready.
SAMUEL. The Rev. H. P. Smith, D.D., Professor of Old Testament
Literature and History of Religion, Meadville, Pa. \Now Ready,
KINGS. The Rev. Francis Brown, D.D., D.Litt, LL.D., President
and Professor of Hebrew and Cognate Languages, Union Theological
Seminary, New York City.
CHRONICLES. The Rev. Edward L. Curtis, D.D., Professor of
Hebrew, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. [Now Ready,
EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. The Rev. L. W. Batten, Ph.D., D.D., Pro-
fessor of Old Testament Literature, General Theological Seminary, New
York City. ^
PSALMS. The Rev. Chas. A. Briggs, D.D., D.Litt., Graduafe Fro-
fessor of Theological Encyclopaedia and Symbolics, Union Theological
Seminary, New York. [2 vols. Now Ready
PROVERBS. The Rev. C. H. Toy, D.D., LL.D., Professor of Hebrew.
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. [Now Ready,
JOB. The Rev. S. R. Driver, D.D., D.Litt. Regius Professor of He-
brew. Oxford.
The International Critical Commentary
ISAIAH. Chaps. I-XXVII. The Rev. G. Buchanan Gray, D.D., Pro-
fessor of Hebrew, Mansfield College, Oxford. [^IVcrtU Ready.
ISAIAH. Chaps. XXVIII-LXVI. The Rev. A. S. Peake, M.A., D.D.,
Dean of the Theological Faculty of the Victoria University and Professor of
Biblical Exegesis in the University of Manchester, England.
JEREMIAH. The Rev. A. F. Kirkpatrick, D.D., Dean of Ely, sometime
Regius Professor of Hebrew, Cambridge, England.
EZEKIEL. The Rev. G. A. Cooke, M.A., Oriel Professor of the Interpre-
tation of Holy Scripture, University of Oxford, and the Rev. Charles F.
BuRNEY, D.Litt., Fellow and Lecturer in Hebrew, St. John's College,
Oxford.
DANIEL. The Rev. John P. Peters, Ph.D., D.D., sometime Professor
of Hebrew, P. E. Divinity School, Philadelphia, now Rector of St. Michael's
Church, New York City.
AMOS AND HOSEA. W. R. Harper, Ph.D., LL.D., sometime President
of the University of Chicago, Illinois. \N(yw Ready.
MICAH, ZEPHANIAH, NAHUM. HABAKKUK. OBADIAH. AND JOEL.
Prof. John P. Smith, University of Chicago; W. Hayes Ward, D.D., LL.D.,
Editor of The Independent, New York; Prof. Julius A. Bewer, Union
Theological Seminary, New York. \N(yw Ready,
ZECHARIAH TO JONAH. Prof. H. G. MITCHELL, D.D., Prof. John P.
Smith and Prof. J. A. Bewer. {In Press.
ESTHER. The Rev. L. B. Paton, Ph.D., Professor of Hebrew, Hart-
ford Theological Seminary. [Now Ready.
ECCLESIASTES. Prof. George A. Barton, Ph.D., Professor of Bibli-
cal Literature, Bryn Mawr College, Pa. [JVow Ready.
RUTH, SONG OF SONGS AND LAMENTATIONS. Rev. Charles A.
Briggs, D.D., D.Litt., Graduate Professor of Theological Encyclopaedia
and Symbolics, Union Theological Seminary, New York.
THE NEW TESTAMENT
ST. MATTHEW. The Rev. WiLLOUGHBY C. Allen, M.A., Fellow and
Lecturer in Theology and Hebrew, Exeter College, Oxford. \Now Ready.
ST MARK. Rev. E. P. GouLD, D.D., sometime Professor of New Testa-
ment Literature, P. E. Divinity School, Philadelphia. \_N(m) Ready.
ST. LUKE. The Rev. Alfred Plummer, D.D., sometime Master of
University College, Durham. {.Njw Ready.
The International Critical Commentary
ST. JOHN. The Very Rev. John Henry Bernard, D.D., Dean of St.
Patrick's and Lecturer in Divinity, University of Dublin.
HARMONY OF THE GOSPELS. The Rev. WiLLlAM Sanday, D.D.,
LL.D., Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity, Oxford, ana the Rev. WiL-
LOUGHBY C. Allen, M.A., Fellow and Lecturer in Divinity and Hebrew,
Exeter College, Oxford.
ACTS. The Rev. C. H. Turner, D.D., Fellow of Magdalen College,
Oxford, and the Rev. H. N. Bate, M.A., Examining Chaplain to the
Bishop of London.
ROMANS. The Rev. William Sanday, D.D., LL.D., Lady Margaret
Professor of Divinity and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford, and the Rev.
A. C. Headlam, M.A., D.D., Principal of King's College, London.
\_Now Ready.
i. CORINTHIANS. The Right Rev. Arch Robertson, D.D., LL.D,,
Lord Bishop of Exeter, and Rev. Alfred Plummer, D.D., late Master of
University College, Durham. \Norw Ready.
II. CORINTHIANS. The Rev. Dawson Walker, D.D., Theological
Tutor in the University of Durham.
GALATIANS. The Rev. Ernest D. Burton. D.D., Professor of New
Testament Literature, University of Chicago.
EPHESIANS AND COLOSSIANS. The Rev. T. K. Abbott, B.D.,
D.Litt., sometime Professor of Biblical Greek, Trinity College, Dublin,
now Librarian of the same. {Now Ready.
PHILIPPIANS AND PHILEMON. The Rev. Marvin R Vincent,
D.D., Professor of Biblical Literature, Union Theological Seminary, New
York City. {Now Ready.
THESSALONIANS. The Rev. James E. Frame, M.A., Professor of
Biblical Theology, Union Theological Seminary, New York City.
{In Press,
THE PASTORAL EPISTLES. The Rev. Walter Lock, D.D., Warden
of Keble College and Professor of Exegesis, Oxford.
HEBREWS. The Rev. James Moffatt, D.D., Minister United Free
Church, Broughty Ferry, Scotland.
ST. JAMES. The Rev. James H. Ropes, D.D., Bussey Professor of New
Testament Criticism in Harvard University.
PETER AND JUDE. The Rev. CHARLES BiGG, D.D., sometime Regius
Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford.
{Now Ready.
THE EPISTLES OF ST. JOHN. The Rev. E. A. Brooke, B.D., Fellow
and Divinity Lecturer in King's College, Cambridge.
REVELATION. The Rev. Robert H. Charles, M.A., D.D., sometime
Professor of Biblical Greek in the University of Dublin.
[I
THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
GEORGE BUCHANAN GRAY
VOL. I
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H
5 DEPARTMENTAL
AL Critical Commentary
A
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL
COMMENTARY
ON
THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
I-XXXIX
BY
GEORGE BUCHANAN GRAY, D.D., D.Litt.
fROFESSUR OF HEBREW AND OLD TESTAMENT EXEGESIS
IN MANSFIELD COLLEGE, OXFORD
XL-LXVI
BY
ARTHUR S. PEAKE, D.D.
RYLANDS PROFESSOR OF BIBLICAL EXEGESIS
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. I
INTRODUCTION, AND COMMENTARY ON I-XXVII t
NEV^ YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1912
1
Lop
.2,
^
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i i
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7%e Rights of Translation and Reproduction are Reserved
I
PREFACE.
This Commentary should have been written by another ;
and all who are in any way familiar with the work of the
late Dr. A. B. Davidson, and conscious of the profound
sympathy and penetrating insight that he always brought
to the interpretation of Scripture, must regret that he had
made no substantial progress with the Commentary, which
the editors of this series had entrusted to him, at the time
when Christian scholarship and Christian life were left the
poorer by his death.
After Dr. Davidson's death, the editors, with a view to
the speedier completion of this series, decided to make the
Commentary on Isaiah the work of two writers; and at
their request I undertook the preparation of the Com-
mentary on chs. 1-39. For the present volume I am,
then, entirely responsible ; and, owing to the unequal size
of the two main parts of the Book of Isaiah, the con-
clusion of my work must be held over for the second
volume, which will also contain Dr. Peake's Commentary
on chs. 40-66, completing the work.
For the general Introduction to the entire book I am
also solely responsible, though Dr. Peake, who has read
it, is in general agreement with it, and in particutar with
such references as it contains to chs. 40-66. The more
special Introduction to those chapters will be written by
him, and appear in vol. ii. The second volume will also
contain full Indexes to the whole work.
I cannot claim, as 1 could in writing my Preface to
Vi PREFACE
%
the Commentary on Numbers, in this series, that the lack
of recent Commentaries is in itself sufficient justification
for the publication of a new one. Once again I have
been able to avail myself of the learning of Dillmann,
with on this occasion the additions or corrections of
Kittel ; but as a commentator on Isaiah, Dillmann stands
far less alone. Like all who have devoted themselves to
the study of Isaiah since 1892, I am profoundly indebted
to the Commentary of Bernhard Duhm, as my frequent
references to him may be left to show ; frequently agree-
ing with him, I have also frequently differed from him ;
but often when I have differed, I have differed because
I first have learnt from him. In some respects Duhm
seems to me to have led those astray who have followed
him too closely, and particularly by his line- and strophe-
divisions; but that is only a small offset to the really
great service which he has rendered. Marti in brief com-
pass has found it possible to advance frequently beyond
Duhm ; and to his work I have constantly turned, and
seldom unrewarded. But to come now nearer home.
Two names of Oxford scholars should always be associ-
ated with the study of Isaiah : they are those of Robert
Lowth (Introduction, § 44) and T. K. Cheyne. The
Commentary of the latter at the end of last century for
long stood out conspicuous, in the general dearth of good
English Commentaries on the Old Testament; it was
itself the successor of earlier and valuable works on
Isaiah, and it has been succeeded and, in some measure
superseded, by his later works, especially (though even
these are not his latest discussions of Isaiah) his edition
of the Hebrew text and of an English Translation with
notes in Haupt's Sacred Books of the Old Testament.
But the English student is also happy in the possession
of excellent shorter Commentaries by Skinner {Cambridge
Bible), Whitehouse {Century Bible), and Wade {West-
minster Commentaries). The last appeared too recently
to be of much use to me in the preparation of this volume.
Briefer still, but admirable also, and to be commended in
I
PREFACE vii
particular because, as in Dr. Skinner's, the text is printed
in poetical form, is McFadyen's Commentary in The Bible
for Home and School. Of works not taking the form of
a Commentary it must suffice to refer to Driver's Isaiah:
His Life and Times, the famous volumes in the Expositors
Bible by the distinguished Principal of Aberdeen Uni-
versity, and to the translations in poetical form by Box
(1908), Glazebrook {Studies in the Book of Isaiah, 19 10),
and Kent (in the Students^ Old Testament : The Sermons,
Epistles, and Apocalypses of Israel's Prophets, 1910). But
my purpose here is not to compile a catalogue, or to re-
peat what will be found elsewhere (pp. xvi fif.) ; sufficient
has been said to show that recent works on Isaiah are
lacking neither in quality nor in quantity. One other
work in French may be referred to; I have found
Condamin's Livre dlsate (1905) valuable not only for its
intrinsic merits, but because it is based on a different
theory of rhythm, and it frequently criticises the work
of writers with whom, in general, I am in greater agree-
ment.
I have made no attempt to record opinions with any-
thing approaching the fullness of reference that marks
Harper's Commentary on Amos and Hosea in this series.
Consideration of space alone forbade it ; two volumes for
a commentary on what, after all, is a short book may seem
ample, yet they are but little when compared with the
1600 double-columned folio pages of Vitringa, or even the
i6cx) smaller pages of Gesenius. But I have endeavoured
to discharge that part of my duty which consists in atten-
tion to the history of exegesis : if I have seldom or never
referred to some Commentaries of the 19th century, though
they were excellent in their day, it is because much that
was said in them, as much that is said in my own, has an
earlier origin. I have made constant use of Jerome's
Commentary as a good example of patristic scholarship
and exegesis, and as the source of so much that served
throughout the Middle Ages, and of not a little that is
rightly repeated to-day. Another important source of
Vin PREFACE
interpretation is to be found in the work of the mediaeval
Jewish scholars, among whom I have chiefly consulted
Rashi, Kimhi, and Ibn Ezra. I have made more occa-
sional use of, or at least more limited reference to, Calvin,
Grotius, Vitringa, and Koppe; but with Gesenius' great
Commentary (1821) comes a fresh and plentiful source
of valuable information and suggestion ; it still repays
constant use of it ; Hitzig and Ewald, among those who
fill up the time before the recent writers to whom 1 have
referred, also made characteristic contributions to the
interpretation of Isaiah.
The task of interpreting the Book of Isaiah is by no
means complete; and this is largely because the philo-
logical basis is as yet far from secure. This cannot be
conveniently discussed in briefer commentaries ; but as a
contributor to the present series I have, as in duty bound,
devoted much attention to it. I might be more satisfied
with the result of my labours if I could feel that two or
three important fields of inquiry were really worked out.
As it is, I must at least indicate here what appear to
me certain general grounds for considering much of the
interpretation tentative and uncertain.
I. The text is frequently corrupt, frequently at least
open to suspicion of corruption, even where it has very
generally been accepted without demur. Ultimately in
many passages we shall always be driven back on conjec-
ture ; but I am persuaded that the evidence of the Greek
version has not been as yet completely and accurately
sifted (cp. Introduction, § 4).
Another but partially worked out subject that bears
very considerably on the soundness of the text, and often
in consequence on interpretation, is that of metre or
rhythm. I came to the study of Isaiah still sceptical on
the subject of Hebrew metre; I remain sceptical of the
finality of any existing theory of it ; but the approxima-
tion to regularity in the parallel periods is too striking
to be neglected, and I have systematically drawn atten-
tion to it in the small print notes prefixed to the trans-
PREFACE IX
lations: at the same time I have endeavoured to make
the irregularities, which in the present text at all events
are frequent, as obvious as the approximations to regu-
larity. At the present stage metrical arguments alone
appear to me a precarious textual criterion, but as con-
firmatory of other considerations they often have value.
I discuss the matter more fully in the Introduction
(§§ 44-57).
2. Uncertainty of another kind is due to the in-
sufficiency of our historical knowledge. The brilliant
genius of Winckler, in particular, has started many theories
of ancient history, geography, and thought which, if sound,
would largely modify the interpretation of the Book of
Isaiah, as well as most of our conceptions of the history
of Israel and the influence of the Jews on religion and
history. I have not found myself able to go very far in
adopting these theories, but the discussions of Winckler
and others serve at least to throw into relief the in-
adequacy of our knowledge of the facts (as distinguished
from theories based upon them) of that history which
must form the background to the Book of Isaiah.
The plan of the present series provides for a trans-
lation of the poetical parts of the Old Testament : this
has called for a translation of by far the greater part of
the Book of Isaiah, virtually, indeed, of the whole of it
apart from chs. 36-39. I have aimed at making my
translations the pivot of the Commentary ; apart from it
they have, indeed, little claim to consideration ; I have
deliberately, where necessary, sacrificed form and style, in
order to make them as expressive as possible of what
I understand the Hebrew text to mean, but also of the
numerous uncertainties which appear to me at present
to beset the text. For this reason I have introduced
many marks of interrogation; and as additional marks
of interrogation I would suggest that the single inverted
commas, which indicate emendation, should be regarded :
few emendations are certain, though many enable us to
approximate more closely to the original thought of the
X PREFACE
writer than do the prevalent conjectural translations of
the existing Hebrew text. By conjectural translation
I mean translations that rest on ancient or modern guesses
at the meaning of words or phrases, and either lack sup-
port in usage and etymology altogether, or obtain the
semblance of such support only by means of improbable
inferences from actual usage (see, e.g.^ p. 458 top). In
some cases, if any translation at all is attempted, there is
no escape from guessing, and it is merely a question
whether the guess shall take the form of conjectural
emendation, or of conjectural translation.* Where the
sense seemed to me hopelessly obscure, and any prevalent
conjectural rendering or reading more likely to conceal
than to illumine the meaning of the passage as a whole,
I have preferred to leave words or lines entirely un-
translated.
1 would draw attention here to what I have discussed
more fully in the Introduction : the line divisions of the
translations are determined by regard for parallelism and
with disregard of rhythm or metre, where this conflicts
with parallelism.
In general, I have given entire in the translations what
appears to me to constitute a single poem, and no more ;
occasionally, for particular purposes, I have, however,
brought together in translation what may be a collection
of one or more poems, or fragments, rather than a single
poem (see, e.g.y i^"^^ 5^"^*). The small print in the transla-
tions indicates the possibility that the words in question
are intrusive ; but the degree of uncertainty so indicated
varies greatly ; in some cases it is very slight.
So many features of these Commentaries are now
familiar that they call for no special explanation here.
But to one detail I must refer. I have in general followed
* I have discussed these alternatives in an essay entitled English Versions
and the Text of the Old Testament (in Mansfield College Essay s^ presented to
the Reverend A. M. Fairbaim, D.D.^ London, 1909), and both in that
Essay and in Hastings' Smaller Dictionary of the Bible, art. Text, Versions,
and Languages, § 40, I have given illustrations of conjectural translation in
the EV. See also S. R. Driver, Expositor, Jan. 1910, p. 23.
H
PREFACE Xi
Swete's text of the Greek version, accepting his authority
in matters of accentuation, etc., when I had no occasion
to question it. But one principle of accentuation followed
in that text is misleading in relation to many, of the more
or less minute, points of philology. I refer to the accen-
tuation of the proper names and of transliterations of
Hebrew words, for which there is no authority in the
oldest Greek MSS. In Swete's text the accentuation of
the later MSS is abandoned, and the Greek forms in
question are accentuated in accordance with the accentua-
tion of the vocalised Hebrew of the Massoretic text.*
Unfortunately, owing to a misunderstanding, the accentua-
tion of Swete's text has been allowed to stand in some of
the transliterations cited in this Commentary; it was in-
tended that all such words should have been consistently,
as they are frequently, left without accent as in Lagarde's
edition, and in the names cited in EBi. For the same
reason, breathings (which in Swete's text are inserted in
accordance with the existing Massoretic Hebrew text, so
that they possess no authority of their own) are omitted.
Unless, in common with most modern writers on
Isaiah, I am fundamentally wrong in the conclusion that
the Book of Isaiah is not, as we have received it, the work
of Isaiah, it must be one of the main tasks of a com-
mentator on the book to disengage the work of that
prophet from the accretions which it has received, and so
to recover, as I have attempted to do in the last division
of the Introduction, the spirit and teaching of a single
personality in place of the confused and composite form
that must present itself, if we attempt to treat the entire
book as the work of a single mind. This, I say, is one
of the tasks of the commentator ; another is, of course, to
do the same service for the author of the main part of
chs. 40-55. But there is yet another; and that is to do
justice to other contributors ,to the book, and, above all,
to approach with sympathy the work of, perhaps, many
nameless writers that now forms so large a part of it.
* Swete, Old Testament in Greeks i. p. xiii.
XU PREFACE
m
No full justice can be done to a book which is a great
monument of Jewish religion after the Exile, if all our
attention is devoted to determining whether this or that
passage is " genuine," and dismissing it as not " genuine,"
if it is not the work of Isaiah. In reference to works such
as the Book of Isaiah, the term " genuine " is indeed
misleading. None of these nameless writers may have
possessed the religious genius of Isaiah, but together they
represent the play of the earlier prophetic teaching on the
Jewish Church. In religion, as elsewhere, great person-
alities count first, and it is the privilege of a student of
the Book of Isaiah to come face to face with one, if not
two, such personalities : but the religious community is
the necessary outcome, or field of action, of the great
religious personality and his teaching, and the student
of the Book of Isaiah has but half entered into his inherit-
ance, if he communes with Isaiah and the great exilic
prophet, but fails to feel the life of that post-exilic
religious community which not only preserved for them-
selves and for us the words of the earlier prophets, but
preserved them in books which were also made to breathe
the hopes and aspirations that sustained the Jews through
centuries of isolation, oppression, and temptation.
I cannot bring this Preface to a close without acknow-
ledging my gratitude to Dr. Driver for the help which
I have again received from his reading of my proofs, and
the numerous suggestions which he has made with regard
to them. These have withheld me, at times at least, from
unsafe places, and they have enabled me to enrich my
Commentary ; my only regret is that, without more
extensive alteration of the printed sheets than seemed
reasonable, I could not enrich it still more from the same
source.
G. BUCHANAN GRAY.
December 191 1.
CONTENTS.
XXlll
xxiii
XXV
xxix
xxxii
FAGH
Principal Abbreviations employed, . . • . xv
Addenda and Corrigenda, .
Introduction,
§§ 1-3. Title and Place in the Canon,
§ 4. Text and Versions,
§§ 5-7" The Book of Isaiah a post-exilic Compilation,
§§ 8-40. Origin and History of the Book of Isaiah,
'(i) External Evidence, .... xxxii
(2) The Greek Version and the Prophetic Canon, . xxxix
(3) The testimony of the Book of Isaiah to itself, . xlv
(4) Prophetic teaching and Prophetic literature, . Hi!
(5) Tentative synthesis from the preceding evidence, Iv
Kteria for distinguishing the words of Isaiah from the
additions of later writers, .... Ivii
§§ 44-57* The poetic forms of the Prophetic literature, and of the
Book of Isaiah in particular, . . . . lix
§§ 58-76. Isaiah in relation to the political and social conditions
of his age, ...... Ixviii
§§ 77-89. Isaiah as Prophet and Teacher, .... Ixxxi
Chronological Table, .•••«. xcvii
Commentary, ....... i
Map I. Egypt, Syria and Assyria . . . To face title-page
,, 2. Moab and part of Judah, to illustrate the Commentary on
Is io"-*» 15. 16, . . . To face page 273
xiii
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PRINCIPAL ABBREVIATIONS EMPLOYED,
I. Texts and Versions.
Aq.
AV.
EV.
MT
OT.
RV.
M * • •
w> . .
!L . . .
S . . .
Symm. .
E . . .
Theod. .
H . . .
Aquila (p. xxvi).
Authorised Version.
English Version.
The Massoretic Text {t.g. the vocalised text of the
Hebrew Bible). Variants in the Hebrew codices
have been cited from De Rossi, Variae Lectiones
Vet. Test.y vol iii., or R. Kittel, Biblia Hebraica.
Old Testament.
Revised Version.
The Greek (LXX) Version of the Old Testament
(ed. Swete, Cambridge, 1887-1894). The readings
of the codices are, when necessary, distinguished
thus: — (K^ ©^ (Alexandrian, Vatican, etc.). For
the cursives, reference has been made to Vet, Test.
Graece^ cum variis lectionibus^ ed. Holmes, Oxon.
1798, which is cited as HP followed by a numeral.
Jewish recension of the Hebrew (unvocalised) text,
i.e. the consonants of the ordinary Hebrew MSS
and printed Bibles.
The consonants of the traditional Hebrew Text (J^)
irrespective of the present word divisions and after
the removal of the vowel consonants : see p. xxv.
Old Latin version of ffi : see p. xxix n. *
The Syriac Version (Peshitto).
Symmachus (p. xxvi).
The Jewish Aramaic Version or Targum (p. xxvi).
Theodotion (p. xxvi).
Vulgate.
XVI
PRINCIPAL ABBREVIATIONS EMPLOYED
2. Author's Names and Books.
[See also the literature cited at the beginning of several sections of the
Commentary ; the works thus given are, within the section, often cited by
the author's name only.]
AJSL
ATAO
Baud.
BDB
Box, G. E. .
Breasted, J. H.
Bredenkamp, C. J. .
Che[yne], T. K. .
CIS , , ,
Cond[amin], A. .
COT .
Dav[idson], A. B. .
DB . , ,
Del[itzsch, Franz] .
Del.
Di[llmann, A.]
Dr[iver, S. R.]
American Journal of Semitic Languages and Litera-
ture.
See Jeremias.
W. W. von Baudissin, Einleitung in die Biicher des
Alien Testaments, 1901.
A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament
based on the Lexicon and Thesaurus of Gesenius^
by F. Brown, C. A. Briggs, and S. R. Driver,
Oxford, 1906.
The Book of Isaiah, 1908.
{\) A History of Egypt, 1906;
(2) Ancient Records of Egypt, 1906 (a collection of
Egyptian historical texts, transliterated, translated,
and annotated).
Der Prophet Jesaja erlailtert, 1886- 1887.
/*/= The Prophecies of Isaiah, ed. 5, 1889 ;
Introd= Introduction to the Book of Isaiah, 1895 ;
SBOT, see SBOT below.
Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum, Paris, 1881 ff".
Le Livre d^Isaie, 1905.
The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the OT. ', a. transla-
tion (London, 1885), by O. C. Whitehouse, of the
second edition of Die Keilinschriften und das alte
Testament (abbreviated KAT), by Eb. Schrader.
References are given to the pages of the 2nd
German edition which are marked in the margin
of the translation.
A third edition of the German work i^KAT^) has
been edited (and indeed entirely rewritten) by H.
Zimmern and H. Winckler (1903).
Hebrew Syntax (Edin. 1894).
Dictionary of the Bible, and in particular A Diction-
ary of the Bible, edited by James Hastings (Edin.
1898-1902).
Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah
(translated from the 4th edition, 1889), Edin. 1890.
In reference to Assyrian matters stands for Friedrich
Delitzsch (especially Assyrisches Handworterbuch,
1896).
Per Prophet Jesaja, 1890.
{\) A Treatise on the Use of the Tenses in Hebrew
(ed. 3, Oxford, 1892).
(2) An Introduction to the Literature of the OT
PRINCIPAL ABBREVIATIONS EMPLOYED
XVll
Dupim, B.] .
EBi,
Eich[horn, J. G. L.]
Ew[ald, H.] .
Exp.
Ges[enius, W.]
Ges-B. .
Giesebrecht, Fried. .
O— Iv. • • •
Gressmann, H.
Hal[6vy, I.] .
Hackmann, H. •
Hitz[ig, F.] .
Houb[igant, C. F.] .
HPN .
• •
Ibn Ezra, Abraham
(tii67)
JBLit. .
Jer[ome](t420)
• •
Jeremias, A.
/PA
JThS
KAT
KB
Kennett, R. .
VOL. I. — b
(abbreviated LOT), cited according to the pagina-
tion of ed. 8 (Edin. 1909), which is also that of
editions 6 and 7.
Das Buchjesaiay 1892 (ed. 2, 1902).
Encyclopaedia Biblica, edited by T. K. Cheyne and
J. S. Black, 1 899- 1 903.
(1) Einleitung in das Alte Testament, ed. 2, 1 787;
(2) Die Hebrdischen Propheten, 1816-1819.
Die Propheten des Alien Bundes, ed. 2, 1867, 1868.
The Expositor.
Der Prophet Jesaja, 1821.
Wilhelm Gesenius' Hebrdisches und Aramaisckes
Handw'&rterbuch ilber das Alte Testament . . .
bearbeitet von Frants Buhl, 19 10.
Beitrdge zur Jesaiakritik, 1890.
Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar, as edited and enlarged
by the late E. Kautzsch . . . second English
edition, revised in cucordance with the twenty-
eighth German edition {igog), by A. Cowley,
1910.
Der Ursprung der israelitisch-jiidischen Eschatologie,
1905.
Le Livre (Tlsaie (in course of publication in Revue
Semitique : carried down to ch. xxii., July 191 1).
Die Zukunftserwartung des fesaia, 1893.
Der Prophet /esaja, 1833.
Biblia Hebraica cum notis criticis et versione latina,
t. IV, Prophetae posteriores, Paris, 1753.
Studies in Hebrew Proper Names, by G. Buchanan
Gray, 1896.
Hebrew Commentary on Isaiah in Buxtorf's Biblia
Rabbinica.
Journal of Biblical Literature (Mass., U.S.A.).
Commentariorum in Isaiam libri octo et decem, in
Migne's Patrologia Latina, vol. 24.
(1) ATAO — Das Alte Testament im Lie hte des alien
Orients (ed. 2, 1906) ; English translation by
C. L. Beaumont (191 1) ;
(2) BNT=Babylonisches im Neuen Testament, 1905.
Journal of Philology.
Journal of Theological Studies.
See COT.
Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, ed. Eb. Schrader (Berlin,
1889 ff.).
A collection of Assyrian and Babylonian texts
transliterated and translated into German by various
scholars.
The Composition of the Book of Isaiah, 19 10.
XVlll
PRINCIPAL ABBREVIATIONS EMPLOYED
Ki[mhi, David]
(t 1230)
Kit[tel, R.] .
Kon[ig, Ed.] •
Koppe, J. B. •
Kue[nen, A.] .
Lag[arde, P. de]
Levy, J. .
Liebmann
LOT .
Lowth, R.
Luzzatto, S, D.
Marti, K.
Meinhold, J, .
NHB .
Numbers .
NSE .
NSI
Onom, • •
Oo.
Or[elli, C. von]
Ottley, R. R. ,
PEFQuSt. .
PRE .
Rashi . •
Hebrew Commentary on Isaiah in Buxtorf s Biblia
Rabbinica.
(1) Der Prophet Jesaj a, a new edition (1898) of Di. ;
(2) Biblia Hebraica, 1906.
Historisch-Kritisches Lehrgebdude der Hebrdischen
Sprache^ 1881, 1895 • the concluding volume (cited
as Kon. iii. or simply Kon.) appeared in 1897 with
a fresh title, Historisch- Comparative Syntax der
Hebrdischen Sprache.
The references to the Syntax are to the sections, but
the references to the earlier volumes are to the pages.
D. R, Lowth's Jesaias . . . mit Zusdtzen und
Anmerkungen, i779fif.
Historisch - critisch Onderzoek . . . Tweede dttly De
Profetische Boeken des ouden verbondes, 1889.
(i) Semiiica, i., 1878;
(2) Uebersicht iiber die . . . iibliche Bildung der
Nomina : abbreviated BN.
NHB =■ Neuhebrdisches u. Chalddisches Worlerbuch.
See p. 397.
See Dr.
Isaiah: a new translation; with a preliminary
dissertation^ and notes^ critical, philological, ana
explanatory y 1778 (ed. 3, 1795, has been used).
// Profeta Isaia volgarizzato e commentato ad uso degP
Israeliti, 1867 (an Italian translation with Hebrew
Commentary).
Das Buck Jesaja, 1900.
Die Jesajaerzdhlungen Jesaja j6-j9, 1 898.
See Levy.
A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of
Numbers, by George Buchanan Gray, 1903.
Lidzbarski, Handbuch der Nordsem. Epigraphik, 1898.
G. A. Cooke, A Text-book of North-Semitic Inscrip-
tions, 1903.
Onomastica Sacra, ed. Lagarde (Gott. 1887).
This contains several ancient Onomastica, includ-
ing those of Eusebius and Jerome.
H. Oort (see p. 397).
The Prophecies of Isaiah (English translation by J. S.
Banks, 1889), '1904.
Isaiah according to the Septuagint, 1904, 1906.
Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement.
Herzog's Real-Encyklopddie fiir Protestantische Theo-
logie u. Kirche ; 3rd edition, by A. Hauck.
R[abboni] Sh[elomoh] Y[ishaki] (1040-1105).
Hebrew Commentary on Isaiah in Buxtorf 's
Biblia Rabbinica.
IK
PRINCIPAL ABBREVIATIONS FMrLOYED
XIX
Rev. Bibl.
Rogers, R. W.
Saad.
SBOT .
Sievers, E. •
Skinner, J.
Smith, G. A. .
Sta[de, B.] .
Th. Ti[jd.] .
Vitr[inga, C] .
Wade, G. W. .
Whitehouse, O. C.
ZATfV .
ZDMG .
ZDPF ,
Revue Biblique Internationale publide par Vkcole
pratique d^£tudes Bihliques itablie au couvent
Dominicain Saint- Etienne de Jerusalem (Paris).
A History of Babylonia and Assyria, ed. 2, 1 90 1.
Saadiah (t942).
The Sacred Books of the Old lestameut, ed. Paul
liaupt. (Part lo, The Book of Isaiah, by T. K.
Cheyne — Hebrew Text, 1899; English translation,
1898.)
Metrische Studien. i. Studien zur hebrdischen
Metrik, Erster Theil ; Unlersuchungen : Zweiter
Theil ; Textproben (including Is 1-5. 14. 3722^- ^q).
These studies are published in the Abhandlungen
der Philologisch- Hisiorischen Classe der Kiinig.
Sdchsichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften^ Ein-
undzwanzigster Band (1901).
The Book of the Prophet Isaiah (vol. i (i.-xxxix.),
1896; vol. 2 (xl.-lxvi.), 1898), in The Cambridge
Bible for Schools and Colleges.
The Book of Isaiah, 1889, 1890.
Lehrbtuh der Hebrdischen Grammatik, 1879.
Theologisck Tifdschrift (Leiden).
Theologische Studien u. Kritiken (Gotha).
Commentarius in librum pivphetiarum Jesaiae . . .
editio nova, Leovardiae, 1724.
Ihe Book of the Prophet Isaiah (1911),
The Book of the Prophet Isaiah (^Century Bible), i.,
1905.
Zeitschrift fiir die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft.
Zeitschrift des deutschen morgenldndischen Gesell-
schaft.
Zeitschrift der deutschen Paldstina- Vereins.
Biblical passages are cited according to the Hebrew enumeration of
chapters and verses : where this differs from the English enumeration, the
reference to the latter has commonly (except in the philological notes) been
added in a parenthesis.
The sign t, following a series of references, indicates that all examples
of the phrase, word, or form in question, occurring in the OT, have been
quoted.
The single inverted comma [e.g. "and *he' strikes bargains," 2^) is used
to indicate departures from the Hebrew consonantal text ; such readings are
not necessarily conjectural ; many rest on the evidence of (Sr.
al.=alii (others).
Cp. = Compare.
Ct.= Contrast.
NH = New Hebrew (the language of the Mishnah, etc.).
H
i
ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA,
P. 69 (phil. n. on 3^*) ; also p. 80 (n. on 4*), p. 86 (n. on 5*),
p. Ill (n. and phil. n. on 6^^). Whether or not lyn, to exter-
minate, also developed the specific meaning to exterminate by
depasturing, or whether or not "l^y3, a (domestic) beast, gave rise
to a denominative vb. meaning to depasture, depasturing seems
to be in the writer's mind both in 3^*, where the treatment of the
vineyard, however reckless and destructive, is yet probably con-
ceived as yielding some profit (cp. v.^*^) to the persons ad-
dressed, and in 5^ where destruction by animals is suggested by
the parallel D»"ID. In these passages, therefore, even if depasture
could not be defended as a literal rendering, it might be admitted
as a paraphrase bringing out the particular form of destruction
which was probably in the writer's mind. If the text of J^ in
Ex 22* was sound, and not, as it probably is, corrupt (see, e.g..
Dr. ad loc), "lyn might perhaps be a denominative of "i^y3, beast;
in this case it might either mean to depasture, or merely (being
quite synonymous with njn) to graze. But, apart from the very
doubtful evidence of Ex 22*, nothing suggests that "lya was a
denominative of "l^ya ; on the other hand, "i^ya may rather be a
noun created after the root had developed the meaning to de-
pasture. If the meaning attaching to lya, when it is used ot
animals, is a direct development from the root, so far from being
merely synonymous with njn, to graze, it should be to graze
destructively, to remove (or destroy) by grazing, to depasture ; for the
idea of total removal, or destruction, is so fundamental to, or so
closely associated with, the root "iy3 and its derivatives, that, as
applied to animals, it would naturally call up the idea of the
destruction which they do, rather than the profit they receive, by
feeding ; lya would therefore be entirely fitting in reference to
the reckless indifference of the persons addressed in 3^* and to
the destructive browsing of the beasts let in through the broken
walls and hedges of 5^ but (unless the word lost much of its
force) "sv^h would not be a suitable substitute for r\)rh in a
promise such as Budde would make of 6^^ (see n. there)
Setting aside the meanings to burn, to blaze {e.g. Ex 22^, Is
xxii ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA
jsi ^17 ioi7 2^9 ^225 438 52!^ and so in the Aramaic of ST), as prob-
ably going back to a distinct root, a possible connection between
most of the remaining meanings of "ij;! can be discerned. In
Syr. ^Ik^ bears the meanings to search out^ and then to glean
{i.e. to search out the last grapes and remove them) : see Payne
Smith, s.v. jSn,
^
and cp. I K 14^^ (Pesh.) ^-.S^AlD? yJ\
To glean would suit Is 3^* admirably : Ye
have gleaned my vineyard to the last grape ; but since it would
not also suit 5^, it would be rather hazardous to postulate glean
as a meaning of lya in Hebrew. The idea of total removal (e.g.
of y-in, Dt 136; !?^3, I K 14IO; \in\>r\, Dt 2613), which is so con-
spicuous in Hebrew, may also start from the meaning to search
out. If the idea of total removal of pasture by cattle was early
developed, the Heb. and Syr. 1^y3, I^IjO, a (domestic) beast^
Ai.jJMy a camel, and, more rarely, an ass, Eth. beraivi, an ox,
may have meant literally total removers (of herbage), depasturers.
Possibly also jtJ> (5cil^, dung, was so called as that which is
put away : cp. i K 14^0 ^^^ -,^3^ itj^xa. Other denominatives
will then have arisen with meanings derived directly from l^ya,
beast, and ^, dung] cp. "lyn (Kal, Niph., Piel, Hiph.), to be
brutish, stupid (see, e.g.. Is 19^^), ;JLO (Peal and Ethpeal), to be
fierce] for derivatives from mj, dung, see Lane. ^'
P. 321, line 26. The entire collection of the Elephantine
papyri is now published; see E. Sachau, Aramdische Payprus
und Ostraka aus einer jUdischen Militdr-kolonie zu Elephantine,
Leipzig, 191 1. It now seems clear that the Jewish colony at
Elephantine was military in origin.
P. 382, 1. 8 of small print. K3255^ is probably, if a Hebrew
name, a hypocoristicon of 0)n>n:j', as is NtV of ^nny, and NVDK'
of "in^ytDK^. In the OT (l)n''33B^ occurs only in Chr., Ezr., Neh.
But on seals, some of which are probably pre-exilic, it occurs
with some frequency ; in^^ntr, probably also n^J^K^, and perhaps
^:3[K'] too, occur stamped on jar handles found at Tell el-Judeideh
(about 22 miles from Jerusalem). See M. A. Levy, Siegel u.
Gemmen, pp. 40, 45 ; Bliss and Macalister, Excavations in
Palestine, 119 f.; Clermont-Ganneau, PEF Qu. St., 1902, pp.
264-266 ; Lidzbarski, Ephemeris, i. 183 (cp. p. 182), ii. 70.
1
INTRODUCTION.
5S 1-2. Title and Place in the Canon,
I. The Book of Isaiah is one of the eight sections, or
volumes, entitled D"'fc?''33, Prophets^ which constitute the second
of the three parts of which the Hebrew Scriptures, D^N'^33 min
D''l'inD1, consist. This part, according to a mediaeval Jewish
distinction,* subdivides into D^^t^Ni D"'K''33, the Former Prophets^
consisting of the four books, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings,
and the Q*3inK D''fc<^3D, the Latter Prophets^ consisting of the four
books, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, " The Twelve " (the " Minor
Prophets," as the last named is commonly called, constituting a
single volume).
In Hebrew printed Bibles, in Hebrew MSS, and in Hebrew
tradition, the eight books called " Prophets " form a group which
is never broken either by omission or intrusion ; moreover,
when and where the custom of confining a single roll f to a single
book \ did not exclusively prevail, and many books were written
in the same roll or codex, the " former prophets " always precede
the " latter prophets " without variation of order. On the other
hand, there is evidence of some variation of order within the
group of the latter prophets.
In Hebrew printed Bibles, Isaiah immediately follows Kings,
and is then followed by Jeremiah, Ezekiel, "The Twelve";
and this is the order of the latter prophets in the earliest
extant Hebrew MSS, such as the codices at St. Petersburg,
* H. E. Ryle, The Canon of the Old Testament, p. 228.
t H. St. J. Thackeray argues that in early times each book occupied two
rolls: %t^JThS\\,^ 85-98; Grammar of the OT in Greek, p. 65.
X Lk 4"; Baba Bathra, 13d.
xxiii
XXIV INTRODUCTION
dated in the years which correspond to a.d. 916 and 1009
respectively, and commonly in other MSS, except those written
in Germany or France. On the other hand, according to a
Rabbinic decision recorded in Baba Bathra^ i4<^,* the correct
position of Isaiah is after Ezekiel; this order is also found in
many MSS, especially those written in Germany or France. In
other MSS, e,g, a Paris MS dated 1286 and Brit. Mus. MS
Oriental 2091, a yet different arrangement is found, viz. Jeremiah,
Isaiah, Ezekiel, "The Twelve"; see, further, C. D. Ginsburg,
Introd. to the Massoretico- Critical Edition of the Hebrew Bible
(1897), pp. I ff. For different views of the relative antiquity of
the different arrangements and for the reasons of them, see Ryle,
Canofiy pp. 225-229 ; E. Konig, Einleitung in das AT^ p. 458.
2. In ffir the " latter prophets " are separated from the
"former prophets," Kings being followed by Chronicles, and,
in most MSS, by other books also, before any of the "latter
prophets" occur. In the arrangement of the group, Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, "The Twelve," the MSS of f& differ: in
some, e.g. B (and consequently in Swete's edition of C&), A, and V,
the minor Prophets precede Isaiah, which is followed by Jeremiah
(together with Baruch, Lam., and the Letter of Jeremy) and
Ezekiel. In K, Isaiah stands first of the group. Varieties of
arrangement are also found in various lists of the Jewish
Scriptures in Greek and Latin writers : thus Isaiah stands first
of the group, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, " The Twelve," in lists of
the Eastern Church, such as those of Melito (latter half of 2nd
cent. A.D.), Origen (f 254), Leontius (f c. 543), and in lists of
the Western Church, such those of Ruffinus (f 410), and Cassio-
dorus (t c. 570) ; but it stands after " The Twelve " in the Eastern
lists of Athanasius (t 373), Epiphanius (f 403), Amphilochius
(t after 394), John of Damascus (f before 754), the Laodicene
Canons (f. 360), and in the Western lists of Hilary (f 367), Augus-
tine (t 430), and the Council of Carthage (a.d. 397). See, further,
Swete, Introd. to the OT in Greeks pp. 197-230.
3. The title of the Book in Heb. MSS and commonly in
Hebrew references is simply iTiyK^, Isaiah ; so in fflr it is Ho-ata?.
Occasionally in references to the book fuller titles are found,
such as Isaiah the prophet (Acts 8^^, ' Ho-atai/ tov 7rpo<f>T^Tr]v ; cp.
v.28)j f^e look of the prophet Isaiah (Lk 4^'^ /StySAtov tov Tr/ao^^Jrou^
* The passage is translated at length in Ryle, Canon, pp. 273 f.
TEXT AND VERSIONS XXV
'Ho-aiov) : in dSt^ the title runs Ho-atas opa/xaricrTOS (rd. opafiaTiaTrj<i) ;
but the full title of EV does not rest on MS authority.
The form of the name in the Title — iTj/r' (Origen, Je<T<ria) — differs from
that which is used in the Book itself, viz. in'y»\ So also of other prophets
whose names ended with the divine name, the shorter form occurs in the title,
whether that or the longer form occurs in the books : see n'or, nnay, iTjcj*,
n'n3T. That is to say, the form of the name in the title is governed by the
usage of the age when the title was added, not by the usage of the Book to
which it is prefixed. On the earlier use of both forms, see Bonk, in ZA TfV,
1891, pp. 126 ff. : at the end of proper names the shorter form n' is already
exclusively employed in the Assouan and Elephantine Papyri (5th cent. B.C.).
§ 4. Tgxt and Versions,
4. It is unnecessary to write at length on the Text and
Versions of the Book of Isaiah, for all that is of peculiar import-
ance to the study of this book is limited to the question of the
value of the Greek version ; for the rest the conditions are those
which are discussed in any general treatment of the Text and
Versions of the Old Testament,* and which have also been briefly
described by the present writer in Hastings' Smaller Dictionary
of the Bible ^ art. Text and Versions. Elaborate accounts of the
Versions of Isaiah in particular are given by Ges. (i. 56-106),
and (with special reference to chs. 24-27) by Liebmann, in
ZATWy 1902, pp. 1-56, 285-304.
In the present work the symbol J^^ is used as a convenient
abbreviation for the consonants of the traditional Hebrew text,
irrespective of the present word divisions and after the removal
of the vowel letters (n, \ ^). It is important to observe that the
symbol denotes in any particular instance a hypothetical text ;
for though there can be no question that these vowel letters were
much more sparingly used in the period when the prophecies
were written than later (cp. G-K. § 7), and that they still were
more sparingly used as late as the date of the Greek version
(see, e.g.^ the phil. nn. on 8^^ 2i2); yet to some extent and for
some purposes, especially, for example, to indicate a final vowel,
they were employed as early as the age of Isaiah (cp. the
Siloam Inscription, Mesha's Inscription, etc.). Nevertheless,
in all cases it is important to consider what meaning a passage
may have borne apart from these vowel letters ; for there can
* See also Dr., Samuel^ Introd. §§ 3-4 (ed. i, pp. xxxvi-lxxxiv).
xxvi INTRODUCTION
4
never be any certainty that they are due to the original author,
and at times their presence or absence makes a serious difference
to the meaning ; see, e.g., i^^'^^.
The variations* between the existing Hebrew MSS, the
earliest of which is dated a.d. 916 (§ i), present as usual but
little of interest. Nor are the variants from the consonants of
the Hebrew text suggested by the Vulgate, the Targum,t or the
Syriac Version, J or the surviving fragments § of the Greek
translations (2nd cent. a.d.) of Aquila, Symmachus, and
Theodotion, numerous or important; more frequently these
versions show a different interpretation from that which is
embodied in the vowels added by the Massoretes (6th-8th
cent. A.D.) to the consonants of the Hebrew text ; cp., as an
interesting example, 3^^, where Aq. C render D*B^3, but MT
points D''C'3.
But in spite oF this evidence that the text of Isaiah, in
common with that of the rest of the Old Testament, has been
handed down with great care since the 2nd cent, a.d., there can
be no question that between 700 B.C. and a.d. 100 it suffered in
many passages serious corruption. This is clear from internal
evidence, as the discussion of numerous passages in the Com-
mentary must be left to show. It is also clear that the Greek
version, the date of which was probably not much later than
150 B.C. (§ 22), was made from a text differing considerably from
1^. But though the difference between the Hebrew original
of the Greek version {(&) and the traditional Hebrew text (J^) is
clear, the exact form, and in many cases even the approximate
form, of the Hebrew original of ffi cannot be determined.
Indeed, it has been questioned whether (& is of any appreciable
value for the determination of the original text. For example,
Mr. Ottley, to whom we are indebted for a useful edition of
Codex Alexandrinus (A) of Isaiah, with introduction and notes,
writes, " In Isaiah I find it hard to see that the LXX gives any
* Collected in De Rossi, Variae Lectiones Vet. Test. (1786), vol. iii.
t Lagarde, Prophetae Chaldaice (1872). Cp. Bacher, Kritische unter-
suchungen zum Propheten-Thargum^ in ZDMG^ 1874. See, further, the
Bibliography in Stenning's art. Targuni, in DB.
X D. L. Warszawski, Die Peschitta zu Jesaja {^Kap. 1-39), ihr Verhaltnis
zum massoretischen Texte, zur Septitaginta u. zum largurn, Berlin, 1 897.
§ Collected in F. Field, Origenis Hexaplorum quae supersunt.
TEXT AND VERSIONS XXVii
proof at all (unless in a few isolated exceptions) of an older and
superior Hebrew text : because the translators seem to have
been so constantly mistaken in reading their Hebrew, or unable
to translate it, as to deprive their witness of all authority " (i. 49) ;
and again (p. 50), " the failures of the translator (or translators) in
reading his original may have been largely justified by illegibility
of MSS, and very likely by abbreviations also ; the actual script
may have been difficult. But over and above all this, it seems
as if his knowledge of Hebrew was imperfect : and if this was so,
he may have thought that he saw before him not merely some-
thing different from the reality, but something such as no skilled '
Hebrew writer would have written. The hypothetical Hebrew '
underlying his Greek need not therefore be always good or
^classical Hebrew, and this must be taken into account. If this
view be correct, it takes away yet more from any claim of the
LXX to give decisive witness as to a Hebrew text older than we
have, or can trace from other sources." There is much here
that rests on correct observation ; but the conclusions drawn are
unsound. There can be little question (i) that the translators
sometimes, and even often, misread the Hebrew before them;
(2) that their knowledge of Hebrew was imperfect ; (3) that the
Hebrew which they thought they saw before them was such as
no skilled Hebrew writer would have written. But over against
this we have to observe: (i) the possibility that a translator
misread his text is balanced by the equal or almost equal
probability that copyists of the original text also at times
misread ; moreover, what was obviously misreading on the part
of the translators does not in all cases seriously conceal the
reading which was actually before them, and which may be
a valuable variant of the reading in f^, just as while some
misprints are extremely confusing, or, simply because they make
some sense, dangerous, others that make nonsense are im-
mediately detected and understood. We must then reckon with
the possibility of mis-copying, whether we follow J^ or whether
-we follow mSc* and we have no more ground for refusing to con-
* Mr. Ottley, indeed, would meet this by a dogmatic consideration,
" Some minds, moreover, will still not refuse to entertain the idea that the
Heb. text has been guarded, not only by the watchful care of the Jews, but
also by the special providence of the Almighty " (ii. p. xvii). Yet even if
dogmatic considerations were in place here at all, it is difficult to see why the
XXVIU
INTRODUCTION
sider the evidence of C&, because the translators* sometimes
misread their original, than we have for refusing to consider the
evidence of |^ ; (2) the lack of knowledge of Hebrew on the
part of the translators may in some passages make the recovery
of the text which they translated difficult, or impossible ; on the
other hand, in other cases it may be the surest pledge of the
actual existence of a particular reading; even translators with
inadequate knowledge do not make nonsense of their translation
in mere wilfulness : if only the nonsense in the translation can,
as is sometimes the case, be seen to be the equivalent (or an
obvious misreading) of Hebrew letters that, rightly understood,
make good sense, we have about the best evidence we can
possess that such a Hebrew reading actually existed; the
translators of Judges, as is well known, makes nonsense by
rendering the precative '^2, iv i/xoi; but an €v i/xot making
nonsense is better proof than if it made sense that the translators
actually read the Hebrew letters ^3 ; (3) ** Hebrew such as no
skilled Hebrew writer would have written " is to be found not
only in the Hebrew which the Greek translators in some passages
attempt to render, but in the present Hebrew text itself; and in
some places where the Hebrew is impossible, or at least poor
and improbable, in the present Hebrew text, it is good in what
appears to have been before the translators of ffi.
The main difficulty in the use of ffi is occasioned by its
tendency, which is at times very conspicuous, to paraphrase.
But though it is important that this should be fully recognised,
and duly allowed for, it is still the fact that the mass of the
translation is either not paraphrastic at all, or not paraphrastic in
such a manner as to prevent the recognition of the Hebrew text
lying behind it. Generally speaking, ffi: renders three different
forms of service: (i) where it agrees with J^, it proves the
existence of the reading in question at least as early as c. 150
B.C. ; (2) where it differs from J^, and the Hebrew lying behind
it is obvious, it proves the existence of a reading differing from
J^ about 150 B.C. ; (3) even when it is obviously paraphrastic it
may more or less clearly support f^ (cp. e.g. 8^n.), or raise a
more or less serious suspicion of J^.
Almighty granted to the text of the Jews a special Providence which He
withheld from the Greek Text, which became the Bible of the Christian
Church.
THE BOOK OF ISAIAH A POST-EXILIC COMPILATION XXIX
Much more work needs to be done, both on the text of G
itself, which at present needs in many passages to be laboriously
sought for,* and on the idiosyncrasies of the translators ; and till
this has been accomplished, the actual evidence of Cr cannot be
either exhaustively or in all cases accurately determined. At
present it is necessary for each succeeding investigator of the
Book of Isaiah to test critically the suggestions of his predecessors,
for readings have been claimed for 6r on very questionable
grounds ; and, on the other hand, there are readings latent in ffi
that have not been considered. A difficult practical question,
however, arises, viz., how in a commentary of limited scope to
discuss with fullness f the evidence of this version, or to indicate
it with brevity without at the same time misleading the reader.
It has been found impossible to include a reference to all
variants or possible variants, and it has seemed best where the
Hebrew equivalent of (Sc is ambiguous to quote the Greek rather
than, if not as well as, a possible Hebrew equivalent. Occasion-
ally the Greek has been cited without comment where it may
seem to some at least to raise or strengthen a reasonable
suspicion of the correctness of the text of f^.
Valuable special studies of the Greek translation of (& and
the Hebrew text underlying it are those of Liebmann (see p. 397
below) on chs. 24-27, and Zillesen on oh. 53, in ZATPVxxv.
261-284.
§§ 5-7. TAe Book of Isaiah a post-exilic Compilation.
5. It is probable that the title "Isaiah," attached to the
entire book (§ 3), was intended to imply that the prophet Isaiah
was the author of the whole, and that the book, as we now have
it, owed its form to him. It is true that it would be in accord-
* Swete, OTin Greeks vol. iii., prints the text of B with the variants of
K A O Q Z r ; other variants must be sought in Holmes and Parsons, Vet. Test.
Graece, iii. For attempts to group the MSS of Isaiah, see Liebmann, in
ZATW, 1902, pp. 9ff. ; Ottley, i. Sff. The proportion of the Old Latin
Version of ffi that has survived is fortunately large — about three-quarters of
the whole ; see Petrus Sabatier, Bibliorum sacrorum versiones antiquaey ii.
515-^39.
t A reference to the notes on 2* 25^'- 34'^'", in ZATW, 191 1, pp. m-
127, will show what is the present writer's conception of adequate fullness, and
the consequent impossibility of discussing all the passages that need it, with
any approach to fullness in the present work.
XXX INTRODUCTION
ance with Jewish practice to entitle the book from a prominent
word in the opening sentence,* and such is the name Isaiah,
though title and book differ as to the orthography of the name
(§ 3)) true, too, that the Talmud, in the passage already (§ i)
referred to, records that " Hezekiah and his college wrote Isaiah "
— whatever that may mean.f Yet the simplest supposition is
that the titles of the " latter prophets " implied authorship from the
first, as they certainly suggested it later. Be this, however, as it
may, the references in the NT (§§ iif.) are sufficient evidence
that it was customary, as early as the ist cent, a.d., to
attribute anything and everything in the book so entitled to
Isaiah, and the passage in Sir. discussed below (§ 14) carries back
this custom to the beginning of the 2nd century B.C. It is
precarious to infer the existence of a conflicting theory, or
tradition, from the fact that Isaiah, according to some authorities,
had its place in the Canon after Jeremiah and Ezekiel
But ancient as the theory that Isaiah is the author of all that
is in the book that bears his name may be, it is certainly very
erroneous. The book is badly arranged : to refer to but a single
point, the account of the prophet's call stands not at the
beginning, where we might expect it (cp. Jer i, Ezk i, Hos i,
but cp. Am 7^^^*), but in ch. 6. Yet bad arrangement dy itself
need prove nothing more at most than that the arrangement of
the material was not due to Isaiah : the material arranged might
still be entirely his ; Mohammed was the author, though not
the arranger, of the entire Koran, and an analogy for the position
of the account of Isaiah's call in the middle of the book may
be found in the fact that Mohammed's call is only recorded
towards the close of the Koran (Sura 96).!
6. The proof that Isaiah is, nevertheless, not the author of
the Book of Isaiah, lies in the fact that a large part of the Book
was written at the least two centuries after his time, and some
of it later still. How large a part is subsequent to the age of
Isaiah it may be difficult to determine ; but even a superficial
critical survey of the Book must discern that so much is subsequent
* Cp. e.g. nanD3 as a title of Numbers : Numbers, p. xx.
t Cp. Driver, LOT, p. viif. ; Cheyne, Introd. p. xviii.
X Cp. G. B. Gray, The Comparative Study of Semitic Literature, in the
Contemporary Review, July 1907, pp. 84 fF,
THE BOOK OF ISAIAH A POST-EXILIC COMPILATION xxxi
to his age that it is incorrect and misleading to speak or think of
the Book as the work of Isaiah; it is, on the other hand, a
compilation of the post-exilic period, containing, it is true,
prophecies of Isaiah which were already ancient when the Book
was compiled, but containing also, and in larger quantity,
prophecies and narratives of much more recent date.
Just as parts of the Book unmistakably presuppose the
conditions of the 8th century b.c. as those under which they
were written, so others as clearly pre-suppose the conditions of
the 6th century. Thus 9*^-10* pre-supposes the existence oVi^^i'* Fl^cc^ "^
the Northern kingdom, which came to an end in 722 B.C., and ' J Jf JPy
predicts its fall ; chs. 40-55 pre-suppose the Babylonian Exile, ? ^ ^ </,
which began in 597 (586) B.C., as an existing fact, and predict its
approaching end, presuppose that Cyrus has already advanced
far in his victorious career, and predict that he will become
master of Babylon (which as a matter of fact he did in 538 b.c.), ^
and release the Jewish exiles. A prophecy, unless it can be ;
shown to be a vaticifitum ex eventu^ must have been written before -^
what it predicts, but after what it pre-supposes; 9^-10* was
therefore written before 722 b.c., and 40-55 before 538; but
the latter section, since it pre-supposes that Cyrus has already
achieved remarkable victories, must have been written after
c. 550 B.C. Much of chs. 56-66 probably pre-supposes conditions
that prevailed nearly a century later — in the middle of the 5th
century ; but this is less superficially obvious and as yet less ..^
generally admitted. Ch. 13 pre-supposes an age when Babylon ^^ ^ ^^ > ^
was still "the glory of kingdoms" (13^^) but already threatened
by the Medes : the conditions, not predicted but pre-supposed as
already existing, are again not those of the age of Isaiah, when
Assyria was the dominant worldpower ; they are those of the
6th century B.C., the age of the Babylonian exile, which is almost
unmistakably pre-supposed also in 14^'*; thus 132-142, like 40-
55, was written long subsequent to the age of Isaiah. On similar
grounds, not to speak here of passages of more ambiguous
origin, ai^"^*^ 24-27. 34 f. must have been written not earlier
than the 6th century B.C.
7. Thus, then, we have to recognise in the Book of Isaiah at
least these different elements : (a) prophecies of the 8th century
B.C., {b) prophecies of the 6th century B.C. or later, and {c) the
work of an editor who brought together these prophecies which,
xxxii INTRODUCTION
though so widely separated in time, are intermingled in a single
compilation.
The fact that the Book of Isaiah is not the work of the
prophet of Isaiah, but a post-exilic compilation, ought to be the
starting-point in all detailed criticism, or interpretation of the
Book. In a continuous work, such as the historical narratives
of Josephus or Thucydides, alien matter may have intruded ; but,
unless signs of interpolation can be detected, the presumption is
that any section of the whole is of the same origin as the rest.
On the other hand, in a compilation of disconnected pieces of
different authorship and different ages, no such presumption
holds : each piece must be judged by itself. It does not follow
that a passage is not Isaiah's because it contains no unmistak-
able evidence that it was written in the 8th century ; but just as
little does it follow that a passage must be Isaiah's because it
bears no unmistakable marks of belonging to a later age. It
may well be that much in this or any similar compilation must,
for lack of decisive evidence, remain of uncertain date and
origin. But the fact that much proves uncertain or ambiguous,
when we attempt a more detailed and exact analysis of the Book
and its contents, cannot invalidate the conclusion that follows
from what is obvious, viz., that the Book is a post-exilic compila-
tion : nor is it wise to minimise the significance of this
conclusion.
We may now proceed to a more detailed examination of the
origin of the Book of Isaiah : and in the first instance to an
examination of the external evidence to the existence of the
Book.
§§ 8-19. Origin and History of the Book of Isaiah :
(i) External Evidence.
8. Apart from the significance of the Greek version (§§ 20-
22), and the history of the Prophetic Canon (§§ 23-26), external
evidence shows : (i) that the Book of Isaiah in its present form
and extent existed at latest by the end of the ist century a.d.
(§§ 10-13); (2) that a Book of Isaiah having certain of the
most conspicuous features of the present Book, if not the present
Book itself, existed about 180 b.c. (§§ 14-17); moreover, certain
external evidence suggests (3) that part of the Book of Isaiah,
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF ISAIAH xxxill
viz. chs. 40-66 in whole or in part, about 300-200 b.c. passed in
certain circles under the name of Jeremiah (§§ 18, 19). The
most reasonable inference from the evidence is that neither the
present Book of Isaiah nor a book either approaching it in
extent or possessing its outstanding features existed long before
200 B.C., but that either this present Book or a book possessing
the same outstanding features and attributed to Isaiah existed not
long after that date.
9. The nature of the Book of Isaiah, as indicated in §§ 5-7,
necessarily limits the significance of certain forms of external
evidence. A quotation of known age from any part of a work
like the histories of Thucydides or Josephus would determine
the terminus ad quern of the entire work, even though it were
anonymous ; but a mere quotation, say from ch. 66 of the Book
of Isaiah, while it would determine the terminus ad quem of that
particular prophecy, would prove nothing as to the date of the
Book of Isaiah ; for the quotation might be from ch. 66 before
that chapter was included in the compilation that now bears the
name of Isaiah, just as a quotation (Jer 26^^) from a prophecy
now included in "The Twelve" (Mic 3^2^ only proves that
Micah's prophecy existed before Jeremiah's time, and proves
nothing with regard to the date of " The Twelve," which as a
matter of fact also contains prophecies of the 5th cent. (Malachi),
and cannot have been compiled for at least two centuries after
the quotation in Jeremiah.
10. But there is other evidence that is available for proving
not only the date of some particular passage, but of the book in
which such passages are incorporated.
It is unnecessary to labour the point that the conclusion of
the Canon of the Jewish Scriptures, which may be fixed about
the end of the ist cent, a.d., prevented henceforth any addition
to, or alteration in, the books included within it ; and that since
Isaiah formed part of this Canon, the Book at that time existed
in its present form and extent. It will suffice to refer, for a
matter so generally admitted, to standard works on the Canon of
the Old Testament.
But in view of recent theories (§ 17) that would place the
final stages in the compilation of the Book of Isaiah much later
than was formerly considered possible, it is worth collecting the
evidence of the New Testament of which some {e.g» Romans)
VOL. I. — c
XX XIV
INTRODUCTION
carries us back to the middle of the ist cent. a.d., and all to
some part of that century.
Quotations from, or allusions to, the Book of Isaiah in the
NT may be divided into three classes : the first class consists of
those quotations which specify Isaiah, or the Book of Isaiah, as
the source ; the second specify or imply the Jewish Scriptures as
the source ; and the third, mostly allusions rather than quotations,
specify no source. Only the first two classes are of interest
here.
IT. The passages from Isaiah (J^ or ffi) cited in the NT with
direct reference to that book, and the NT passages in which
the citations are made, are as follows :
Is i^ cited in Ro 9^^.
69f.
Mt I3i4f-, Jn i240f-, Ac 2 826f. ; cp. Mk 4I2, Lk 810.
82391(91^.),, Mt4i5^-.
I022f.
»
Ro 927^.
„10
»
Ro 1512.
29I3
»
Mt 158^-, Mk f^:
4o3-5
»
Mt 33, Mk i'^ Lk 3^-6, Jn i^.
42I-4
»
Mt 12I8-21.
53^
»
Ro iqIS, Jn 1 25^8.
53^
})
Mt 817.
53'^-
a
Ac 832*..
6iif-
»
Lk 4i8f-.
651^-
jj
Ro io20f-.
12. The passages cited with some formula implying that they
are derived from the Jewish Scriptures, or in some cases more
specifically from "the prophet(s)" (Mt 122, Jn 6*^ Ac 7*^),
are :
IS71*
cited
in Mt i23.
814 ( + 2
'816)
„ Ro 9=^3 (i p 28).
glTf.
„ He 213.
25«
„ I Co 1554.
28iif.
„ I Co 1421
2816
„ Ro 933 loii, I P 2«
29io( +
610)
„ Ro 118.
2914
„ I Co ii9.
(406-8)
„ (i P i24f.).
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF ISAIAH XXXV
45^"
cited
in
Ro 14I1.
49'
}f
>>
Ac 1347.
49*
>»
))
2 Co 62.
S»»
>»
M
Ro 224.
5^^ =
Nah
■") „
»
Ro ioi«.
52"
>)
)>
2 Co 6^7.
S3"
>>
J)
(Mk 1528), Lk 2 237.
54'
)>
J>
Gal 4^^.
54"
i>
J>
Jn 645.
5S»
>J
M
Ac 13^4^
56^
»
»
Mt 2ii3=Mk iii7 = Lk I94«.
5920f.
))
J>
Ro Il26f..
64*
»
>>
I Co 29 (free).
66Jt
))
))
Ac 749^-.
13. In addition to these quotations in the NT, the following
quotations from Josephus {B/^ written about 73-75 a.d., and
Anf., written about 93 a.d.) and other works of the ist century
A.D. may be given here :
Is i^® is referred to Isaiah in Asc. Is 3^®.
19^9* j^ j^ ^^ Jos. Anf. xiii. 3^; -^vii. lo^.
4428 4^1 ^^ ^^ ^^ Jos. Anf, xi. ii^-.
432 „ „ „ 4 Mac 1 81*.
Philo (first half of the ist cent a.d.) refers Is i* to "a certain
prophet, the kinsman and friend of Moses (Quaes f. 43)."
14. We may next consider the evidence of the Book of
Ecclesiasticus, which was written about 180 B.c.t The author
in his praise of famous men (44^-5021) writes thus of Isaiah
(4822-25) . J __
* It would perhaps be arguable, though the point is not here put forward
as having any probability, that Jos. refers to an uncanonical pseudepigraphon
whence Is 19^** was subsequently incorporated in the present Book ; he speaks
not only of a or ^Ae Book of Isaiah, but also of his books : see An^. xi. i^
t6 ^i^Xlop rrjs avroO vpoiprjreias 6 'Haatas KaTiXiire ; Ant. x. 2' diravd* 8<ra
7rpoe<f>rjT€v<X€v iyypdyj/as ^i/3\otj /carAtTrei'.
t Mr. Hart {Ecclesiasticus in Greek) argues ingeniously, but unsuccessfully
(cp. e.g. Kennett, p. 89), that Ecclesiasticus was written c. 280 B.C.
X Du. (p, vii) remarks, without, however, alleging any reason, that it is by
no means certain that Ben Sirach wrote /\%'^'^.
a-
XXXVl INTRODUCTION
22 For Hezekiah did that which was good,*
And was strong in the ways of David, f
Which Isaiah the prophet commanded (him),
Who was great and faithful in his vision. J
23 In his days § the sun stood still,||
And he added life to the king;
.2* By the spirit of might he saw the end,
-^ And comforted the mourners in Sion :
25 Yor ever he declared things that should be,
And hidden things before they came.
Just before this passage, in vv.^^^*, Ben Sirach had summarised,
as the most significant events of Hezekiah's days, the approach
and overthrow of Sennacherib, and, referring to the prayer of
the people to God, had said, playing on the name of Isaiah (cp.
Is 7^*), as in v.22b j^g plays on the name of Hezekiah, that
Yahweh " saved them by the hand of Isaiah " (in''yiJ'^ n^3 Dy^'Vl).
15. From the main passage we can infer with certainty that
this writer referred, and that apparently without any uncertainty,
chs. 40-66, or at least what is most characteristic in those
chapters, to the prophet Isaiah. V.^* refers unmistakably to the
recurrent arguments from prophecy in, e.g.^ 4121-24 4^9 ^59 48"^^-,
and vv.24*^' are intentionally coloured with the phraseology of Is
40-66 : what the idols could not do, Isaiah by the spirit of might
(cp. Is 1 12) could : cp. nnriDii ni\-i3 T^n cf?\v ny . . . n^nnx nrn
|Kn ':zh with iK'ya i6 "ik'k dipdi rr'nns h^c^nid t-^d (Is 4610),
nanpn is^k ns i:i> n'»r (Is 4122). Cp. also p^x ^i»3« Dm''^ with
^Dj; IDHD IDm (Is 40^), 'li1 VV '^2^6 D1S5'i» D-bx b Dnji> (Is 6 1 2^-).
t Of David, %%-, ^ his father, ©.
X Vv.22C' ^- 23 are missing, through mutilation of the MS, from ^. Vv.22o- d
23 above are translated from ©. For "^ 5 has |Ym? ] .^ v ^ ^ Vn the
{most) praiseworthy of the prophets, ffi is probably correct. 'Ef opdvet
aiiTov, in his vision, probably corresponds to uunn in the original ; cp. Spaais
= pin in 40^, and also, e.g., in Is i^, Nah i^ ; but it might also =inNnoa : cp.
11^ 49^; that it renders nann (cp. 46^"), as Peters infers, is improbable, more
especially if opdo-ews in 46^' is a gloss from 48^ (Smend, Peters).
§'E»' rats rj/Jiipais avrov : & 01, »/^? ^Q{)V), becatise by his hand'.
cp. 46^.
irAi'e7r65i(re»' = nDy, 46^ in reference to Jos 10^^; here, too, probably
avtirbbKytv renders ^Dy, though the allusion is to B'Dcn dbti, koX dvi^-q 0 ijXios,
Is 388.
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF ISAIAH XXXVii
i6. We can, further, infer with great probability that in Ben
Sirach's Book of Isaiah chs. 40-66 were already preceded by
chs. 36-39, and certain visions, or prophecies (cp. n. on ptn in
i^ in the Commentary), corresponding to some or all of chs. i-
35. V.23 certainly refers to the narrative that appears both in
2 K 20 and Is 38 ; Ben Sirach has already (vv.^^^i) drawn on
the group of narratives (2 K 17^^-20 = Is 36-39) to which this
belongs in his praise of Hezekiah ; his recurrence to it in prais-
ing Isaiah is best accounted for by the supposition that these
chapters stood in his Book of Isaiah : for he selects in praising
the prophets Jeremiah (49^^-) and Ezekiel (49^*^-) certain phrases
or incidents from the books that bear their names. The entire
first part of Is., viz. chs. 1-35, would be summarily recalled by
the term vision in v.^s^^ if that word already stood in the title
to the whole Book of Isaiah (i^)
17. The great characteristic of the Book of Isaiah as it now
exists is that it consists of a group of prophecies, chs. 1-35,
which we will call A ; a historical section, chs. 36-39, B ; and
another group of prophecies, chs. 40-66, C. The present book,
then, expressed in a formula, is A + B + C.
It is highly probable, if not certain, that the Book of Isaiah
as it existed c. 180 B.C. already consisted of A + B + C, just
as the " Book of the Twelve " must already have contained
twelve sections referred to twelve different prophets ; cp. Sir 49^0.
But the question remains : were the three parts as they
existed then co-extensive with the three parts as they exist now?"^
This is a question which the direct testimony of external
evidence does not answer. Till recently the identity of Ben
Sirach's Book of Isaiah and our own was not questioned. But
Du. and several others since have claimed that both A and C
received accretions after 180 B.C. It is entirely a question of
probability which must be estimated in the light of internal as
well as external evidence.
18. Meantime we may proceed to consider the evidence of
2 Ch 3622^' = Ezr 1^-3. This appears to give a terminus a quo for
the Book of Isaiah, to show that when Chronicles was written,
i.e. not earlier than 300 b.c., and perhaps later, though a Book
of Isaiah may have existed, and doubtless did exist, it was less
extensive than the present Book ; that as yet chs. 40-66 formed
no part of it.
XXXVlll
INTRODUCTION
The last verses of Chronicles read as follows :
20^ And they (viz. the exiles) were servants to him (Nebu
chadnezzar) and his sons, until the rule of the sovereignty of
Persia, ^i in order to fulfil (niK^oi') the word of Yahweh by the
mouth of Jeremiah, until the land enjoyed her sabbaths : all the
days of its desolation, it kept sabbath to fulfil seventy years.
22 And in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in order to
complete (nii?3f5) the word of Yahweh by the mouth of Jeremiah,
Yahweh stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, and he
made proclamation through all his kingdom and also (put it) in
writing, saying, 23 Thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia, "All the
kingdoms of the earth hath Yahweh, God of Heaven, given to
me, and he hath commanded concerning me that I should build
for him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah : whosoever then
is among you of all his people, Yahweh his God be with him,
and let him go up (Ezr i^) to Jerusalem which is in Judah, and
build the house of Yahweh, the God of Israel."
In v.21 the Chronicler quite obviously, and even explicitly,
refers to the fulfilment of the prophecy in Jer 29^^ that the
Exile would last seventy years and then come to an end. In
vy22f. and Ezr i3 = Ezr i^"^ it seems equally obvious that the
Chronicler is referring to the fulfilment of Yahweh's words in
Is 4428, Cyrus " shall perform all my pleasure, even saying of
Jerusalem, She shall be built, and to the Temple, Thy foundation
shall be laid," just as the words that immediately follow in Is.
" Thus saith Yahweh to . . . Cyrus, whose right hand I have
holden, to subdue nations before him and to loose the loins of
kings" (45^), obviously seem to prompt the opening words of
Cyrus' decree in Ezr i2*.
19. But this prophecy in Is 442^ is referred not to Isaiah,
but to Jeremiah ! unless, therefore, appearance deceive us, Is 40-
66 was attributed by the Chronicler, and if so, certainly not by
him alone, to Jeremiah ; in this case chs. 40-66 as yet formed
no part of a Book of Isaiah.
Du. seems to have been the first to recognise the obvious significance of
2 Ch 3622'' fQj. tjjg history of the Book of Isaiah. It had been obscured
previously, and is still obscured, by a prevalent, but most improbable, inter-
pretation {e.g. see Ryle, Bertholet, Curtis on the passage) : according to
this interpretation, v.^^ as well as y.^^ refers to the prophecy of seventy years ;
but (i) v.^2 is far more naturally taken as giving an additional statement to
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF ISAIAH XXxix
v.^^ rather than a mere repetition, as referring to a further fulfihnent rather
than repeating a reference to the same ; note, "and in the first year," etc. ;
(2) though m^aV, v.^, might be a mere synonym of hkSdS, v. 2^, it is at least as
probable that it means in order to complete the fulfilment of what Jeremiah
said : Jeremiah had prophesied that the exile must last seventy years : it had
done so, and that prophecy was fulfilled (v.^i) : Jeremiah had also (in Is 44^
45^) prophesied that Cyrus would secure the rebuilding of the Temple ; in
order to complete the fulfilment of Jeremiah's predictions, Yahweh had
moved Cyrus to give the Jews permission to return and build the Temple ;
(3) whether we admit the distinction in (2) or not, v.^ is closely linked
with v.^, and the prophecy to be fulfilled, referred to in v.'^, is most naturally
identified with the prophecy cited by Cyrus in his decree in v.^ ; only so is
the entire form of vv.^'- really explained ; if v.^ was merely to repeat v.**,
the writer would rather have said simply, In the first year of Cyrus, Yahweh
brought up the people, or moved Cyrus to let the people return, to Judah ;
the double reference to the building of the house clearly indicates that this
is the point to which the writer in v.^ moves forward.
It would be preferable, if the interpretation just suggested were proved
impossible, to infer that Jeremiah in \.^ has been accidentally substituted
for Isaiah, or that the entire clause i.tdt 'S3 m.T nan ni'?3'? in v. 22 is a mis-
placed variant of 'n' 'S3 rriiT 'yi'x rwvhvh in v.*^ But inasmuch as other con-
siderations tend to show that the Book of Isaiah was certainly not complete
much, if at all, before 180 B.C., and there is certainly no evidence to show
that chs. 40-66 were attributed to Isaiah much earlier than Sir 48^^"^ {c. 180
B.C.), it is unnecessary to assume textual corruption, and very unwise to
prefer an unnatural to an obvious interpretation * of 2 Ch 36^.
§§ 20-27. Origin and History of the Book of Isaiah : (2) The
Greek Version and the Prophetic Canon.
20. In addition to the direct external testimony to the exist-
ence of the Book of Isaiah before the ist cent, a.d., there are two
important matters that indirectly testify to it — the existence of
an early Greek version of the Book, and the existence of a
* It is interesting to observe how Josephus, intentionally or unintention-
ally, softens down the difficulty ; and it is significant that he quite clearly
and naturally sees in 2 Ch 36^ a fulfilment of Is 44^^ 45^ : see Ant. xi. i^* 2,
especially § 2, where he says : '* Now Cyrus knew this (raCra, viz. that Cyrus*
name had been foretold by the * prophets,' etc. ) from reading the book of
his prophecies which Isaiah left behind him : for this (prophet) said secretly
[iv 6Liro{)p-f)Tif) that God spoke thus to him : * My will is, that Cyrus, whom I
have appointed king of many and great nations, send my people to their
own land, and build my Temple.' This Isaiah foretold 140 years before
the Temple was demolished. Accordingly, when Cyrus read this ... an
earnest desire and ambition seized upon him to carry out (7rot^<rot) what was
so written," etc.
xl INTRODUCTION
prophetic canon prior to the conclusion of the entire Canon of
the Old Testament at the end of the ist cent. a.d.
(a) The Greek Version.
In respect of the relation between the Hebrew text and the
Greek version, the Book of Isaiah presents a striking contrast
to the Book of Jeremiah. The Greek version of the Book of
Jeremiah differs widely from the present Hebrew text both in
extent and in arrangement : from this fact it is a reasonable
inference that at the time the Greek version was made the form
and extent of Jeremiah had not been firmly fixed, and it is a
tolerably certain inference that at that time even the prophetic
books were not protected from re-arrangement and expansion by
any theory of the sanctity of Scripture such as protected the
entire Canon from the ist cent. a.d. onward. In arrangement
the Book of the Twelve also differs in the Hebrew and Greek
Bibles. On the other hand, both in extent and arrangement^ the
present Hebrew Text and the Greek Version of the Book of Isaiah
ar^ substantially identical. Two or three' verses (2^2 381^ 40"^ 56^-),
present in |^, are absent in ©, and in sundry other places ffi is
shorter than J^ by a clause or two ; and in much the same
number of cases © has clauses not found in J^. There is no
difference of arrangement.
The most natural and obvious conclusion to draw is that, at
the date when the Greek version was made, the Book of Isaiah had
already reached its present form and 2i\sOy with the possible excep-
tion of some or all of the slight + and - of ffi, its present extent.
21. An alternative conclusion is, mdetdi possible : a Book of
Isaiah, smaller than the present, may have been translated into
Greek at a certain date; additions may have been made after
that date to the Hebrew text, and these additions may have been
subsequently translated into Greek, and added to the existing Greek
version, yet so that their position in the version corresponded
exactly to their position in the original (ct. Jeremiah). But if
this were actually the case, the additions to the original Greek
version should reveal themselves as such by differences of style
and method, for even quite brief additions to the original text of
(& are commonly betrayed by stylistic differences.* But as a
matter of fact the Greek version of Isaiah is marked in general
* See nn. on 11^ and the references in Thackeray, Grammar^ p. 294,
under "Interpolations."
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF ISAIAH xH
by greater homogeneity of style than the versions of Jeremiah and
" the Twelve" : such differences as exist are not perhaps sufficient
to prove difference of translators, and, if they are sufficient, they
would point to chs. 40-66 (or perhaps 40-55, 56-66) proceeding as
a whole from one translator and chs. 1-39 as a whole from another ;
they would lend no probability to a theory that such parts of the
Book of Isaiah {e.g. chs. 24-27) as have been regarded by some
recent writers as the latest parts of the book, and not written before
the last third of the 2nd cent. B.C., were translated by a different
hand from that which translated the main body of chs. 1-39.
Thackeray has argued that whereas three hands are distinguishable in the
Greek version of Jeremiah (a. chs. 1-28 ; /3. 29-51 ; 7. 52 — Greek enumera-
tion) and two in Ezekiel (o. chs. 1-27 and 40-48 ; /3. 28-39, including a
heterogeneous section /3^. 36-^"'^), there is no similar evidence pointing to the
work of different translators in Isaiah ; he is able 10 point to common character-
istics that run through the whole Book of Isaiah, for example, the translitera-
tion of mxas in the phrase ni«3J< niiT, which, rarely found outside Isaiah,
occurs in Isaiah fifty-three times ; the phrase /xiKpbs kuI fx^yas, or &irb fiiKpov ^ws
fieyiXov, occurs in five places (9'^ (^^' 22"* ^* 23*' ^^)> where the Hebrew does
not immediately suggest it ; the phrase e^s rbv aluva xp^'^o*' is used seven
times in Isaiah, and elsewhere only in Ex 14"*, Bar 3^*^ (cp. rbv aldva xpbvov,
V.*'), Jth 15^** : and in general Isaiah is marked by greater correctness of style
than Jeremiah and Ezekiel : see/T/iS iv. 245-266, 398-41 1 ; Grammar^ 11 f.
I have myself drawn attention to differences as between chs. 1-39 and 40-66,
and amongst others to differences in the use of the article and in the
rendering of tdk na and dkj ; the particles ?rdXt»', 5iJ, bioTi^ and rolvvv, which
are frequent in chs. 1-39, are almost entirely absent from chs. 40-66 : see
/TAS, 1911, pp. 286-293.
22. What, then, is the date of the Greek version ? Briefly
stated, the most important evidence is as follows : — (i) the
author of Wisdom, commonly supposed to have written about
50 B.C.,* must have been familiar with the existing version of
Isaiah, for in 2^2 be quotes the very peculiar version of Is 3^^ ffi :
cp. also Wis 15^® with Is 44^0 ffi. Other later or more uncertain
but interesting traces of ffir are to be found in 4 Mac iS^*^- (cp.
Is 432), Orac. Sibyll. iii. 606 (cp. Is 2^^^-), 708 ff. (cp. Is ii^ff-);
(2) the translator of Ecclesiasticus in his prologue (c. 132 B.C.)
refers to (Greek) versions of "the law and the prophecies (at
7rpo<j>7)T€Lai) and the rest of the books " ; (3) the style and
language of the version.
* Thackeray {Grammar, 61 f.), on grounds of Greek orthography, proposes
an earlier date, c. 130 B.C. ; cp. Church Quart. Keviezv, Oct. 1910, pp. 209 f.
\
xlii INTRODUCTION
It is possible that a more thorough and detailed investigation of the style
and language of fflr may yield more convincing results than have been obtained
at present. Thackeray {JThS iv. 583, x. 300-303) adduces considerations,
worthy indeed of attention, but by no means final or conclusive on this
particular issue, to show that Isaiah was translated earlier than the other
prophetical books : (l) the Greek of Isaiah approaches more nearly than that
of the other prophetical books to the classical style : in the Grammar^
Thackeray classifies it as good koiv^ Greek with the Pentateuch, translated in
the 3rd cent. B.C., but also with i Mac. which cannot have been written before
the end of the 2nd cent. B.C.; (2) "the greater ease of style, and the
tendency to give a free rather than a verbatim rendering," may ho. "marks
of a comparatively early date," though the analogy of the Aramaic Versions
would, so far as it had any value, point to the opposite conclusion; the
earliest Targum is far less free than the later Targums ; (3) some of the
renderings in Isaiah agree with renderings in the Book of Exodus; there
are also, it may be added, affinities with renderings in other books of the
Pentateuch ; see Ges. i. 56, and cp. the use of 6.px<^v as an equivalent in Pent,
and Is. (also in Ezk.) of l'?D, to which H. Wiener draws attention in Bibli-
otheca Sacra^ 191 1> PP- 491 ff. In the Grammar^ Thackeray "conjectures"
that Isaiah may have been translated near the beginning of the 2nd cent. B.C.,
the other prophetical books nearer its close. The occurrences in Isaiah of
the form ovQd% (ixrjdels) and oidels {firjdeis) would indicate a date not much, if
at all, before 132 B.C., if we could trust the orthographical tradition:
unfortunately we cannot do so ; see Thackeray, Grammar, pp. 58 ff. It is
scarcely safe at present to assert more than that proof is not yet forthcoming
that the language and style of the version are less compatible with a date
c. 150 B.C., or even earlier, than with a later date.
The Greek version, then, is certainly not later than the Book
of Wisdom, t.e. than the first half of the ist cent. b.c. More-
over, either (a) this version is earlier than 132 B.C., or (d) the
prophecies referred to in the Prologue to Sir. did not include
Is., or (c) the version known to the author of the Prologue and
the existing version are not identical. Of these alternatives (a)
is the most probable, though neither (d) nor (c) can be ruled out
as absolutely impossible; and, indeed, if Thackeray is right in
considering the version of large parts of 2-4 Kings to be not
earlier than the ist cent. B.C., then the TrpofftrjTeiat of the Prologue
to Sir. were at all events not co-extensive with the books of the
" prophetic Canon " (cp. §1).
Failing good evidence to the contrary, it will be wise to
reckon with the probability that the Greek version of Isaiah
existed, if not even earlier, at least very soon after 150 B.C., and
consequently that by the same date the Book of Isaiah had
attained its present extent, except for any sections which can be
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF ISAIAH xliii
shown to have been translated into Greek by other hands than
those responsible for the main body of the work (cp. § 21).
23. {b) The "prophetic Canon."
After the final determination of the Canon of Scripture at the
end of the First Century a.d., every book included in it was
protected from expansion or alteration (§ 10). But the final
determination of the Canon was, probably, the last of three
stages, of which the first was the acceptance of the Law, i.e. the
Pentateuch, in the 5th cent. B.C. (Neh 8); the second consisted
in the constitution of a second group of sacred writings, which
continue to exist as the second part of the Hebrew Bible,
"the Prophets" (§ i). This second stage was probably reached
early in the 2nd cent B.C. ; for Daniel, written^. 167 B.C., though
it would naturally belong to the group, as a matter of fact forms
no part of it.*
24. Can we then argue : The prophetic Canon was complete
before the middle of the 2nd century B.C., probably even before
c. 165 B.C., the Book of Isaiah forms part of that Canon, there-
fore the Book of Isaiah can contain nothing of Maccabaean
origin, can scarcely contain anything written after the close of
the 3rd cent. B.c. ? The argument has been used, and its
validity has been disputed. It is scarcely safe to press it too far,
or to rely on it exclusively. The final determination of the
entire Canon falls at a period (ist-2nd cent. a.d.) when we have
evidence that a very strict theory of the letter of Scripture was
developing. But we are not justified in assuming that the same
theory existed in the 2nd cent. B.C., and that it was applied to
the earlier and smaller bodies of Scripture that had gained, or
were then gaining, form and recognition. As a matter of fact,
we have evidence that such a theory, even if it existed, was
ineffective : " the Law " received additions after the time of
Ezra (Numbers^ p. xxxi ff".), the Books of Jeremiah and "The
Twelve " differ in extent or arrangement or both in fflr and J^,
Isaiah (J^) itself has in all probability received some very slight
additions even after the date of €r, and harmless additions
to the text of the Samaritan Pentateuch {Numbers^ p. xxxviii f.)
* For a fuller discussion of the summary statements of this section, refer-
ence must again be made to standard works on the Canon. It is to be
observed that Du. (p. vif.) disputes the value of the argument from the
absence of Daniel.
xliv INTRODUCTION
show a similar tendency in the neighbouring Samaritan com-
munity.
Thus the rigid theory of the finality of Scripture and the strict
division between Scripture and its interpretation, which prevailed
from the ist cent. a.d. downwards, had been preceded by a
period during which the ancient words of the prophets were
subject to adaptation to the new conditions and needs of later
generations. Ancient promise or threat and modern interpreta-
tion, application, or modification, were at this period not kept
absolutely distinct, but were combined into new written words
adapted to present needs.
25. And yet the failure of Daniel to be incorporated in the
prophetic Canon shows that in some degree the extent of
expansion or change to which " the Prophets " were subjected
was limited. Is it likely that entire sections like chs. 24-27,
(32) 34-35 were first incorporated in the Book of Isaiah after the
middle, or even after the end, of the 2nd cent. b.c. ? Daniel
and, say. Is 24-27 are, indeed, not quite in the same case:
to have included Daniel in the prophetic Canon would have been
to expand that Canon by the introduction of the work of a
prophet not yet recognised ; whereas, if chs. 24-27 had indepen-
dently established a claim to be Isaiah's, their inclusion merely
meant that the work of a prophet already recognised in the
Canon was made more complete.
On the whole, it seems improbable that long sections not
obviously related to the existing Book, and the place which they
now occupy in it, were first incorporated in it after "the
Prophets " had become a body of Scripture. They would
naturally, like Daniel, have found their way into the "writings."
26. Du. and Marti dismiss the argument from the Canon
altogether, on the ground that the History of the Canon must be
judged by what it contains and not vice versa. This is perfectly
true ; and if any section of the Book bears unmistakable evidence
of having been written at the end of the 2nd cent. B.C., it
certainly follows that the Book of Isaiah and the prophetic Canon
were still open to expansion as late as that. But if it is a case of
probability merely, if it merely seems probable, without appearing
certain, that a section of the Book was written at so late a date,
then we are justified in placing probability over-against prob-
ability : a possible, but not necessary, theory of the interpretation
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF ISAIAH xlv
and origin of a section may rightly be judged unproven if it
conflicts with the probable, even though not certain, history of
the prophetic Canon.
27. Reviewing the various lines of evidence which have
already been discussed, we should not expect to find much in
the present Book of Isaiah that was written after c. 180 B.C., still
less to find much that was written after r. 150 B.C., unless differenced
in (K can be established which point to different translators.
On the other hand, there is no reason why even much of the
Book may not have been written as late as the 3rd cent. B.C., for
our present Book, in common probably with the Book of the
Twelve, appears to have taken shape within that century, and
rather perhaps towards its close than its beginning. Whether
matter so late even as the 3rd cent. B.C., and, if any, how much
of such matter is to be found in the Book, will be determined
mainly by internal evidence.
§ 28-35. Origin and History of the Book of Isaiah : (3) The
Testimony of the Book of Isaiah to itself.
28. When we turn to interrogate the Book itself as to its
origin and history, two significant features at once strike us: (i)
the arrangement of the matter; (2) the presence of several titles.
To the arrangement of the Book a passing reference has
already been made in § 5. Certain principles of arrangement
can be detected,* but none is consistently carried through.
Regard for the subject-matter may have exercised some influence
in keeping, if not in bringing, together kindred prophecies or
sections: as in Ezekiel (chs. 25-32) and Jeremiah (chs. 46-51),
so in Isaiah (chs. 13-23), prophecies concerning foreign nations
are grouped together ; yet this principle of arrangement is less
consistently carried through in Isaiah, for (i) the foreign
prophecies in chs. 13-23 are interrupted by a section, or
sections, dealing with Judah in ch. 22 ; (2) other foreign
prophecies appear elsewhere in the Book ; Edom is the subject
of ch. 34, Babylon of ch. 47 ; so in the book of " The Twelve "
prophecies concerning foreign nations are separated from one
another ; see, e.g.. Am i f., Nahum ; in this case the reason is
obvious : the book of " The Twelve " is a compilation which in
* Ges. pp. iSff. ; Cornill, Die Composition des Buches fesaia^ in ZATW
iv. 83-105 ; Che. Introd. xxii.
Xlvi INTRODUCTION
its arrangement is primarily governed by the principle that
previously existing books (Amos, Nahum, etc.) should be retained
distinct in the compilation : the same principle is probably
responsible for the separation in the existing Book of Isaiah of
chs. 34 and 47 from chs. 13-23.
Another principle that has exercised some influence in the
"arrangement of Isaiah is regard for chronology : " the year in
which Uzziah died" (6^), i.e. c. 740 B.C., is followed in ch. 7 by a
section that refers definitely to the reign of the next king but one
to Uzziah, Ahaz (from c. 735 B.C.); 14^^ refers to "the year in
which king Ahaz died," which was not later than 715 B.C.; 20^
refers to the year 711 B.C., and the Assyrian king Sargon; chs.
36-39, to the days of Hezekiah and Sennacherib, the successor
of Sargon; 44^^ etc. to Cyrus, c. 550 B.C. Yet a detailed
examination shows that, apart from the striking disregard of
chronology, which allows ch. 6, the record of Isaiah's call to be
a prophet, to stand after a group of his prophecies (chs. 1-5),
chronological sequence is frequently violated in the present
arrangement of the Book. The extent to which prophecies are
out of chronological sequence may be in part due to the
inadequacy of the post-exilic (§§ 5-7) editor's knowledge ; but
in part this also is probably due to the desire to keep distinct the
previously existing books which he has incorporated in his
compilation. And in any case the extent of chronological
inconsequence in the Book of Isaiah is after all no greater than
in the Kor'an, though that work was arranged within a generation
of its composition, and while a considerable amount of valuable
tradition as to the age of its several parts was still young.
29. Certainly the presence of various titles strongly suggests
that the editor of the Book of Isaiah has incorporated in his
compilation previously existing books much as he found them,
without attempting any free and general rearrangement of the
material thus at his command. This editor may himself be the
author of the title in i^, but scarcely of the title in 2^ for 2^, far
from being the heading of a mere section, is as wide in its scope
as i^ ; it stands where it does because the editor has here
incorporated, title and all, a previously existing book. A further
title occurs in 13^ which runs, "the Oracle of Babylon, which
Isaiah the son of Amos saw," and in the succeeding chapters
down to ch. 23 a number of sub-titles follow, "the Oracle of
V
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF ISAIAH xlvii
Moab" (15^), "the Oracle of Damascus" (17^), and so forth.
Was 13^ hke 2^ originally the title of a previously existing book
which the editor of Isaiah incorporated entire, or was it shorter
like the titles of 15^ 17^ etc., and merely a sub-title of a section?
On the one hand, the general title of an entire book containing
oracles on several nations would more appropriately have run,
" The Oracles which Isaiah the son of Amos saw " ; on the other
hand, the editor who had already (i^) prefixed a title indicating
Isaiah as author of the whole volume, had no obvious reason for
reasserting his authorship in this particular sub-title. On the
whole, it seems most probable that chs. 13-23 are derived from
an independent " Book of Oracles " ; possibly this was at one time
anonymous, and the later ascription to Isaiah was recorded by
attaching a clause to the title of the first section of the Book,
while it still circulated separately and before it had come to
form part of the present Book of Isaiah.
30. We find no further titles; but other sections of the
book are marked off by certain characteristics. Chs. 28-32
consist of a series of sections beginning with the exclamation
"•in (28^ 29^ 30^ 31^ 33^) ; these are widely separated from a series
of shorter sections which begin with the same exclamation (5^"^^) ;
these two series of similar sections are probably separated in the
present Book of Isaiah because the editor found them in different
works which he has incorporated entire : cp. the separation of
the prophecies in chs. 34. 47 from chs. 13-23. Chs. 36-39
(except 39^'^^) are an extract from the Book of Kings.
The book thus divides into these sections :
a. I. General Title attributing authorship to Isaiah (i^), and d '
a small group of prophecies (i^-^i).
b. 2-12. A Book of prophecies mainly concerning "Judah <"
and Jerusalem," ascribed in a title (2®) to Isaiah. /) 1 .
c. 13-23. " Oracles " which the title to the first section (13I) '^^^ -^ p^^
probably intends to attribute to Isaiah. ^ p i, 1
d. 24-27. Anonymous Prophecy. - '
e. 28-33. A collection of poems beginning with ^in. "^*^ Jv^/O-^^
/ 34 f. Anonymous Prophecy. ""
g. 36-39. Mainly an extract from 2 Kings.
h. 40-66. Anonymous Prophecy.
Of these sections, g. has its analogy in Jer 52, and the
analogy suggests that it once formed the close of a volume
Xlviii INTRODUCTION
attributed to Isaiah, whether that volume contained the whole or
only part (§ 17) of what now stands between the title i^ and
this historical appendix in chs. 36-39. There is also this differ-
ence between chs. 1-39 and 40-66, that whereas much in chs.
1-39 was written later than the age of Isaiah and as late as most,
if not all, of 40-66, yet throughout 1-39 we constantly return
to direct references to Isaiah, or prophecies unmistakably of his
age ; but in 40-66 there is no reference to Isaiah, nor are there
any prophecies of his age.
31. Probably, then, a stage, if not the latest, consisted in
attaching chs. 40-66 to chs. 36-39, which latter chapters were
already preceded by chs. 1-35 in whole or in part. Whether this
attachment of chs. 40-66 to 1-39 was in the first instance due
to the fact that a roll containing a Book of Isaiah — 1-39 — was
filled out with what was understood to be an anonymous
prophecy (chs. 40-66), either simply to fill a blank space, or to
make the fourth prophetic collection approximate more nearly in
size to Jeremiah, Ezekiel and " The Twelve," or whether chs.
40-66 were attached to chs. 1-39 because they had already
come to be attributed to Isaiah, are speculations that need be
pursued no further here ; see, however, Eichhorn, Eitileitung^ iii.
(1783) 94; Ges. pp. 17 f. ; Cheyne, Introd. xviif., 237 f.
Both books, chs. 1-39 and chs. 40-66, had had their own
separate history before they came, whether by accident or
design, to be treated as a single work. Chs. 40-66 appear to
contain work of at least two periods {c. 540 and c. 450 b.c.)
separated from one another by nearly a century : the matter will
be fully argued in its proper place in the Commentary. An
editor must have brought together the work of these two different
periods, and that scarcely much before, and possibly, even
probably, considerably after, the close of the 5th century.
32. It remains to discuss here the separate history and the
complexity of chs. 1-39 more fully. From the nature of the
case, various alternative theories are often possible : no attempt
will be made to discuss or even to mention them all : it must
suffice to indicate so much as will suggest the complexity of the
problem, and the number of stages by which chs. 1-39 may have
attained their present form.
The Book that contained chs. 40-66 was in the first instance
anonymous ; but the Book that was concluded with chs. 36-39 —
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF ISAIAH xlix
the long extract from Kings relating to Isaiah — was probably
from the first understood to consist entirely of prophecies by
Isaiah and narratives relating to him, in this resembling the
Books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. As a matter of fact, Is 1-39
may contain the work of nearly as many different writers as the
book of " the Twelve," but, unlike that book, it passed as the
work of, or about, a single prophet.
33. But how much of chs. 1-35 belonged to the Book of
which chs. 36-39 formed the closing section ? In all probability
at least the three sections which are referred by separate titles
to Isaiah, viz. (a) ch. i ; (d) chs. 2-12 ; (c) chs. 13-23. But did
this Book also include from the first the anonymous chapters
24-35 ^ Of these chapters, 28-33 (32) contain much that is ad-
mittedly the work of Isaiah, whereas chs. 24-27. (33). 34. 35 con-
tain nothing that can with any probability be defended as work
of the 8th cent. b.c. A theory that the anonymous sections 24-
27. 33. 34. 35 are subsequent interpolations cannot be considered
proved, but it would have in itself nothing improbable. Only it
would be reasonable to believe that if chs. 24-27. 33. 34. 35 were
interpolated into a Book of Isaiah that consisted of i. 2-12. 13-
23. 28-32, they were so interpolated because they were already
believed to be the work of Isaiah, or, if we prefer the alternative,
because the interpolator wished them to pass as Isaiah's.
Again, if these prophecies were added to a book that closed with
chs. 36-39, it is easy to see why they were inserted somewhere in
the middle among the prophecies rather than appended to the
narratives, though the reason for the particular place assigned
them may not be obvious. On the other hand, if they were
interpolated after chs. 40-66 had been already added to a book
which consisted of chs. i. 2-12. 13-23. 28-32. 36-39, it is by no
means easy to see why they were interpolated where they now
stand rather than at the close of the prophecies in chs. 40-66, for
they are certainly not very obviously connected with their present
setting. From this point of view, then, there seems some
probability that, if interpolated at all, chs. 24-27 and 33-35 were
interpolated before chs. 36-39 and 40-66 were united, i.e. before
c. 180 B.C. ; and if this were so, it would follow that chs. 24-27
and 33-35 were written before 180 b.c. The case is rather
different with i9i7(i9)-25 . \{ this were written c. 160 b.c, it must
have been interpolated ; but it may equally well have been inter-
VOL. I. — d
I
INTRODUCTION
polated after the union of chs. 36-39 and 40-66, as before : after
66 it would have stood in no natural connection; in ch. 19 the
verses are attached to others which also deal with Egypt.
34. We proceed next to a survey of the sections of which
several, if not all, once existed separately as smaller books.
Ch. I may have been a prophetic fly-sheet of about the size
of the Book of Obadiah, or its several parts may have been first
put together by the final editor of the Book : see Introd, to ch. i
in the Comm.
2-12. This section, which opens with its own title and
has the main body of its contents enclosed between poems
(2^** 12) relating to the Ideal Future, may well have formed
a Book of Isaiah. But if so, like our present Book it had
itself had a history. It may be noted that (i) the section is
wider in its scope than " Judah and Jerusalem " (2^), for see 9^-
10*; (2) the account of Isaiah's call falls in the middle of it,
ch. 6 ; (3) chs. 6-8 are more largely narrative than " vision,"
ptn (2^ ; cp. n. on i^) ; (4) in 525-29 ^^ i^ayg ^ clear case of mis-
placement; these verses form the close to 9'^- 10*; (5) not a
little even of these chapters is later than the age of Isaiah.
There is room for various conjectures; 6-8^8 shows in the
main at least a clear chronological sequence, and is drawn in part,
if not entirely, from an autobiographical work by Isaiah; chs.
2-5 contain prophetic poems and sayings. It is possible that 2^
was in the first instance a title to a small body of prophecy — say
2-4, or 2-5, to which the extracts from autobiographical, or
biographical, memoirs — 6-8^8 — were appended, as chs. 36-39
were appended to 1-35.* The remainder of chs. 2-12, including
the prophetic poem on Ephraim (g'^-io^), may have gained its
way into this Book at one time or at several. It is, of course,
conceivable that some or all of such additional matter was
added by the final editor of the Book : but this is not probable ;
for had he been freely re-arranging his material, it would have
been natural to group 9^-10* with other prophecies concerning
Ephraim, such as ly^^^^ 28^-*.
* It is less probable that the Book, claiming in its title to be prophecies
concerning Judah and Jerusalem, contained, in addition to 2-5, ^-\q^. and
that 6-9^ was subsequently interpolated between 2-5 and 9'-io^ (Di.) ; nor is
Di.'s argument that Isaiah himself is answerable for combining 2-5. 6-9"
(or 6-11^^) at all conclusive.
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF ISAIAH li
But if we cannot speak with certainty as to the original
contents of the Book to which 2^ was the prefixed title, or as to
its contents when used by the editor who incorporated it into
Is 1-39, so neither can we speak with certainty as to the date
of the Book, either in its original or expanded form. In its
expanded form, however, it must be a work of the post-exilic
period: for not a little of 2-12 was first written in that period,
ch. 12 by very general consent, probably also other passages,
viz. 22-4 42-6 (9I-8) II and parts of 10.
Chs. 13-23. This book consists of (a) a series of "oracles"
indicated by title (13^) and sub-titles (15^ 17^ 19^ ai^-"-^^ 22^
23I), (d) sections not entitled "oracles" (1424-27. 28-32 1^12-14 jg.
( 1 917-25). 20. 22^^-^^). The term KBTD, which appears in the titles
that give so striking an external feature to this section, occurs
nowhere else in the Book of Isaiah except in 30^, but it is found
in the titles of certain sections of the book of " The Twelve " ; see
Hab i\ Nah i^, Zee 9I 12^, Mai i^. This Book of Oracles, if,
as seems likely, the ten sections entitled KU'O, orac/e, once
existed separately, was a post-exilic work, for some of the oracles
were themselves written in the Exile or later — certainly 13^-14*
2ii-i<>, possibly also 15 f. 19 (in whole or part), 23 ; but the Book
also contained some work belonging to the age of Isaiah ; see
ch. 17. It is possible, and indeed far from improbable, that the
untitled sections were, most or all of them, added to the " Book
of Oracles " before that work was utilised by the editor of Isaiah
1-39 ; but some at least of the additions, g.^. c. 20, must have
been made after the " Book of Oracles " as a whole had been
attributed to Isaiah.
Chs. 24-27. This anonymous prophecy is certainly post-
exilic, and so, too (even though they be of independent origin),
are the songs now incorporated with it; see more fully the
Introduction to the section in the Commentary.
Chs. 28-33. Externally these chapters are held together by
the recurrent ^in at the beginning of sections. A further striking
characteristic is the constant interchange of denunciations which
bear the stamp of a particular period in Isaiah's career, and
passages of glowing promise. Some almost certainly, and possibly
all, of the passages of promise are of post-exilic origin (see, g.g.y
on 28^^- 29i'^-24 30I8-26). Since this feature does not run through
the whole of chs. 1-39, we may infer that it marked these
Ill INTRODUCTION
chapters before they were incorporated in chs. 1-39. In chs.
28-33 we appear to have a record of a period in Isaiah's career
made the basis of a (late) post-exilic work; see, further, on
28-33 ') ^^^ ^or ^^ elaboration of the hypothesis barely suggested
here, see M. Briickner, J^ie Composition des Buches Jes, cc,
28-33 if' 1897).
Chs. 34f. An anonymous post-exilic prophecy.
35. This summary statement of much that will be found
more fully discussed in the Commentary is enough to show that
the Book of Isaiah is the final stage in a literary process of
which many of the previous stages fell within the post-exilic
period. And thus an analysis of the Book itself, though it may
not indicate a precise date for the origin of the complete Book,
certainly prepares us for the suggestion of 2 Ch 36 (see above,
§ 18), that the Book did not as yet exist c, 300 b.c., and to
believe that it did not exist any long time before 180 b.c.
We can only go further, if we can determine the age of the
latest section of the Book ; for the Book, of course, in its final form
is later than its latest section. Unfortunately there are several
sections which are clearly post-exilic, but of which the exact age
is anything but clear. The present writer hesitates, as the Com-
mentary must be left to show, to follow Du. and others in
assigning much, or Kennett in assigning more than half, of the
book to the 2nd cent. B.C., and some passages even to the end
of that century. But it is extremely difficult to believe that
chs. 24-27 were written until far on in the post-exilic period, and
1^19-25 may have been written as late as 160 B.C., and inserted
in the then virtually closed Book. Even after that date a few
brief notes — marginal glosses in the first instance — may have
found their way into the text and probably did ; see 2^0 6^3 (last
clause), etc.
The exact age of the last editor's work cannot be determined ;
but the character of the age can be divined. Is 24-27 is an
apocalyptic work, and forms part of the Book of Isaiah ; no
great time after the conclusion of that Book we have evidence
of the activity of apocalyptic thought in Daniel and the earlier
portions of Enoch, The latest editor of the Book, as probably
enough some of the editors of the books he utilised or incorpor-
ated, lived in an age saturated with apocalyptic thought. It
need not surprise us if the thought of the age has frequently
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF ISAIAH liii
affected the form in which even the ancient prophecies have
been handed on to us.
§§ 36-39. Origin and History of the Book of Isaiah : (4) Prophetic
Teaching and Prophetic Literature,
36. Literature was not the primary expression of prophecy.
Elijah was a speaker, he was not a writer; and (so far as we
know) Amos was the first prophet to record his teaching in
writing. But the earliest of even the so-called literary prophets
were speakers first and writers afterwards : Amos, Isaiah, Micah,
and doubtless Hosea, too, were called in the first instance to
deliver a message to the nation by word of mouth. The call to
write, when it is recorded (Is 30^, Jer 36^), came to these prophets
later ; their first need was fitness or power to speak, pure lips,
and not "the pen of the ready writer." Later, prophecy,
especially as it passed over into apocalyptic, became purely
literary; it was expressed from the first in writing. There is
also much of the prophetic literature of which we cannot say with
certainty whether it rests on spoken prophecy or not.
37. Much of the Book of Isaiah, including perhaps most or
all of that which is unrelated to the prophet Isaiah, may rest on
no previously spoken word : it may have had literary form from
the first : in this case all that is needed is to trace the literary
process to its literary origin. But much certainly goes back to the
public or private utterances of the prophet Isaiah, and in this
case we have to inquire what is the relation between the first
literary stage and the spoken word. Our information on this
point is unfortunately scanty, but it is suggestive ; so also is the
form of the written record itself. The questions that arise
cannot be adequately answered ; but much of the Book of Isaiah
can only be satisfactorily discussed and interpreted, if the possi-
bilities or probabilities in this matter are constantly kept in mind.
38. The records of Isaiah's teaching consist of {a) prophecies,
{V) memoirs of the prophet, either (a) autobiographical, 6-8^^
(in the main), and a document underlying 28-32 ; or ifi) bio-
graphical, 20. 36-39.
In b ((3) we certainly see Isaiah through the medium of
others, and, probably, in chs. 36-39 through the medium of
somewhat long popular tradition. In d (a) we have Isaiah's
liv
INTRODUCTION
account of himself; but how do the prophecies stand related to
him and his spoken words ? *
The first thing to be remarked is that the prophecies are
almost without exception poems or poetic fragments (§§ 44 ff.),
and that these poems are short. Probably the longest poem is
q7_jq4 and 526-29^ and this, in Hebrew, scarcely exceeds 300
words. We have therefore no speech, sermon, oration (or what-
ever other term we may prefer to use) of Isaiah's that would have
taken in its present literary form more than 4 or 5 minutes to
deliver.
Now, were these poems (a) Composed first and then recited by
the prophet in public ; or (y8) were they written after the prophet
had spoken or preached in a different style and at greater length,
in order to perpetuate, not the words of his speech, but the ideas
that had formed the substance of it ; or (y) are some of them, and
particularly the more fragmentary, pregnant sayings remembered
by his hearers, and subsequently grouped together much like the
" Logia " of the Gospels ?
39. The alternatives just suggested are not mutually exclusive :
all three processes may actually have taken place and each may
account for some of the prophecies that have survived in literary
form. Certainly the prophets may at times have availed them-
selves of the methods of the Moshelim (Nu 21 2^: see Numbers^
pp. 299 f., xiii f.) ; but, having gathered their audience, they may
have held it by reciting, instead of songs of past victory, poems
of their own composing in which they laid bare the real signifi-
cance of the present ; perchance the song of the vineyard in 5^-^
had such an origin. So, too, in view of much that is fragmentary,
it is far from improbable that we owe something to the memory
of the disciples of the prophet (cp. S^^-^^); and certainly the
grouping of six or seven brief "Woes" in 5^24 recalls the
"Beatitudes" of the Gospels which we have received in two
very different groupings, one of which at least is not that of their
author. But probably the bulk of the prophecies in the Book of
Isaiah, as in Amos, Hosea, Jeremiah, are condensations into
artistic poetic form of what Isaiah had said in public at greater
length, but without the same restraint of form. This is
suggested by the particular instance recorded in 30^ (8^^ is
more ambiguous), read in the light of the full account given
* Cp. Cheyne, Introd. xxix.
^
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE BOOK OF ISAIAH Iv
by Jeremiah (ch. 36) of the way in which he came to commit
his teaching to writing : not till Jeremiah had been teaching for
more than twenty years did he compose the prophetic poems
which summarise what he had said. How early, or how often,
Isaiah gave literary form to his teaching we cannot determine :
there is some reason for believing that it was some years after
his Call that he wrote his account of it (see on ch. 6), and the
preparation of these memoirs may have been Isaiah's first literary
work. In the case of the prophecies on the Northern kingdom,
the two most probable alternatives are these : either (a) Isaiah
wrote 9'^-io* 17^"® 28^-* and despatched the written poems to be
recited or read by others, or (d) he himself, like Amos (Am 7^®"^*),
proceeded to some place in the North, delivered his message,
and subsequently reduced the substance of what he had said
to literary form. Some of the " oracles " on foreign nations were
presumably cast in literary form from the first (cp. Di. xxi),
though ch. 18 again may well be a summary of what Isaiah had
previously spoken.
§ 40. Origin and History of the Book of Isaiah : (5) A
tentative synthesis from the preceding evidence.
40. In the preceding analytical discussion it has several
times been pointed out that more than one theory will
satisfy many of the phenomena: no synthesis of results can
therefore be more than tentative; all that is offered here
is one such tentative theory * of the origin of the Book of
Isaiah.
At times rather than continuously between the years c. 740
to 701 B.C., and perhaps somewhat later, Isaiah was a public
teacher in Judah ; he gradually gathered around him disciples.
Some years after he had been teaching he wrote some memoirs
recording the experience which made him a prophet and the way
in which he had in the earlier years (735-732) of the reign of
Ahaz delivered his prophetic message. He also at various times
perpetuated in the form of prophetic poems the substance of
what he had said in rebuke of the sins of Judah (see, e.g.^ 2-4),
or Ephraim (9^-10^ 17^'^^ zS^-*), or in reference to political issues
of the day in which foreign nations also were involved (see, e.g.,
* For another recent theory, see Kennett, pp. 39-42.
Ivi INTRODUCTION
chs. 1 8. 28-31); in some cases he was moved to do this by
^ the unwillingness of the people to listen to him (30^).
The memoirs and prophetic poems of Isaiah, forming small
booklets, became the treasures of his disciples and their suc-
cessors ; it is probable enough that early owners of these booklets
made annotations in them, and we have, perhaps, an instance of
7 th century annotations in 7^^' ^.
But the personality of Isaiah impressed itself not only on his
immediate disciples : he became the hero of popular story, and
some of these stories relating to the latest period(s) in his life
\ were a century or more later written down, and found their way
' like the similar cycle of stories about Elijah and Elisha into the
Book of Kings (2 K 18-20).
Various writers during and after the Exile wrote oracles on
^ foreign nations ; and a great writer produced a book (Is 40-55)
intended to rouse and encourage the Exiles in Babylon.
After the Exile much of the existing prophetic literature was
newly arranged and expanded, especially by the addition of
passages of promise and comfort ; and among the results of this
activity were books closely resembling chs. 2-12 and chs. 13-23.
New and independent prophecy was also produced, and in
1 the middle of the 5th cent. b.c. much of 56-66 was written.
Later, chs. 40-55 and 56-66 were combined into a single book.
Other independent post-exilic works are chs. 34 f., 24-27 — the
latter written late in the post-exilic period.
Possibly about the beginning of the 3rd cent. b.c. the
existing Books of Isaiah (2-12 and 13-23 and ? 28-32) were
brought together by an editor who prefixed a title i^ and
another booklet of Isaiah's (i^"^^), and added (36-39) to the
prophecies the narratives from 2 K 17^^-20 (with the omission,
however, of 2 K iS^^-^^ and the addition of Is 38^-20): whether
this editor also included in his work chs. 24-27 and 33. 34. 35,
or whether these sections were later interpolated, is uncertain.
i Some time before 180 b.c, chs. 1-39 (24-27. ^^f.posstd/y
being absent) and 40-66 were united in a single whole, which
with Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and " The Twelve " formed four volumes
of prophecy of approximately equal size.
After 180 B.C. the Book of Isaiah may have received some
f additions such as ig^'^-^^y possibly even, though less probably, 24-
27. 34 f.
CRITERIA FOR DISTINGUISHING WORDS OF ISAIAH Ivii
About 150 B.C. the Book of Isaiah was translated into Greek. •
After this date it is very doubtful whether the Book received any
additions extending beyond a clause or a verse : such small
additions, however, were made to the Hebrew text and include
6^3 (last clause) 220.
Against even such minor additions the Hebrew text was
secured from the end of the ist cent. a.d. onwards by the
conclusion of the Canon and the doctrine of the finality of
Scripture. Thenceforward the Book of Isaiah could no longer
be adapted to the needs or hopes of the living community by
addition or alteration, but only by exegesis ; between the 5th
and the 9th centuries a.d. the approved exegesis was closely
wedded with the text by means of the vowel points. At times
these vowel points are flagrantly at variance with the actual
sense of the text, and embody not a possible interpretation of
the prophecies, but the hopes of these later Jews (see, e.g.^ on
§§ 41-43. Criteria for distinguishing the words of Isaiah from
the additions of later writers.
41. The task of interpreting a work with a history so long
and complicated and yet in detail so obscure and uncertain as
that which has just been sketched, is difficult indeed. There is
no question that the Book contains words of Isaiah and words
of other and later authors ; nor can there be any serious doubt
that in parts of the Book these two elements are closely inter-
mingled. We may immediately set aside chs. 40-66, 24-27,
34 f. as containing no words of Isaiah, though in their turn these
chapters also present their own similar problems of analysis.
But in chs. 1-23, referred by title to Isaiah, and in chs. 28-33,
how and to what extent can the earlier and the later elements
be distinguished? The earlier critical method was rough and
ready, and left correspondingly rough places for the interpreter ;
tacitly the accepted canon was : what cannot be clearly proved
to be later than the age of Isaiah is the work of Isaiah. But
the canon is illegitimate. The Book of Isaiah is a late com-
pilation : even the books incorporated in it and attributed to
Isaiah — chs. 2-12 and 13-23 — are post-exilic works. All that
can be strictly claimed is that what clearly proceeds from Isaiah
Iviii
INTRODUCTION
is to be regarded as his, all that clearly proceeds from other
or later writers is not to be regarded as his, and all that is
neither clearly his nor clearly not his must be regarded as un-
certain. And, of course, there is wide range in the degrees of
uncertainty.
42. The criteria for distinguishing the work of different
writers and determining the date of any particular passage are
mainly of three kinds.
(a) The Political and Social implications.
In some cases these are clear and ample ; they show that
chs. 6-8 are, in the main, the work of Isaiah; that chs. 132-22
and 40-55 (in the main) are works of the exilic period. In
other cases the interpretation of what is implied is less clear.
It is certain that if 11^ implies that the dynasty of David has
fallen, the prophecy, 11^*^, was written no earlier than the
Exile ; but many interpreters find themselves able to place an
interpretation on the verse which would leave the date an open
question.
(d) Style and Language.
These may prove or help to prove either (i) that a passage,
or even a clause, is not Isaiah's ; or (2), more definitely, the ap-
proximate date of such a passage. It is unnecessary to use the
argument from style and language to prove that chs. 40-55 are
not the work of Isaiah ; for it is abundantly clear from criteria
of class (a) alone that these chapters were written 150 years
after the close of Isaiah's career. At the same time, style and
language alone would suffice to show that 40-55 were not the
work of Isaiah, though they would not quite so closely define
the date of that work.
The data have been very carefully collected by Cheyne {Intro-
ductioti), who at times may overrate the significance of them.
(<:) Ideas.
In this case, too, there is frequently room for difference of
judgment on the facts; for we cannot write the history of
Hebrew ideas with such precision and certainty as to rule out
the possibility that some ideas which seem to find expression
solely in later religion may not have been current earlier. In
particular is there difference of judgment at the present time
as to the critical significance of certain eschatological ideas (see
below, § 89).
POETICAL FORMS OF THE PROPHETIC LITERATURE lix
43. In most cases a final judgment on any passage will rest
in some measure on criteria of all three classes ; and in cases
where no single type of criteria yields ground for certainty, the
combination of probabilities derived from a study of the three
classes may yield a high degree of probability approaching
certainty ; in others, even all the criteria combined will only give
a balance of probabilities (9^"^), and sometimes this will be
of the slightest kind, so that to one observer the balance may
seem, if it inclines at all, to incline to one side, though to
another observer it will appear to incline to the other.
Kennett (pp. 4 f. ) states the problem well ; but his method of solution would
be sound only if our knowledge of all periods of Jewish history were full instead
of being with reference to some periods exceedingly meagre, and with refer-
ence to most, inadequate. "It is necessary," he writes, "to inquire with
reference to each section or fragment which literary criticism declares to be
homogeneous, at what period every one of its phrases would have a clear
meaning. ... If history repeats itself, it seldom does so to such an extent
that every word and phrase of a document written in one age will be equally
suitable to another : and for practical purpose it will usually be enough to
point out one period of history to which such a document really corresponds
in all its parts." Unfortunately for this method, there is a vast difference
between suitability to a particular age and suitability to what is known of
the same age : a document may very well correspond, or not be inconsistent
with, what is known of two or three different periods of all of which next
to nothing is known ; and if the correspondence with only one such period
is pointed out, a false impression of certainty or probability is necessarily
given. As a matter of fact, considerable parts of the Book of Isaiah are not
inconsistent with what is known of more periods than one (cp. e.g. the
introduction to 19^"^') : if our knowledge were increased, the range of ambigu-
ity might be diminished ; on the other hand it might be increased ; for what
had seemed peculiar to a particular period may be shown by fuller knowledge
to have been common to more than one : till lately an allusion to a Jewish
Temple in Egypt would have corresponded to what was known of the period
from c. 160 B.C. to 73 A.D. only ; it is now known that there was a Jewish ,
Temple in Egypt from before 525 down to 411 B.C. also. /
§§ 44-57. The poetical forms of the prophetic literature^
and of the Book of Isaiah in particular.
44. Robert Lowth (1710-1787), sometime Professor of
Poetry in the University of Oxford and Bishop of London,
rendered two great services to the critical study of the Old
Testament. He revealed by a masterly analysis the parallelistic
structure of Hebrew poetry ; and he perceived that the prophetic
Ix INTRODUCTION
literature was poetical in form."^ He also proved that in trans-
lating from Hebrew poetry it is possible to reproduce not only
the sense, but also the form, in so far as this depends on parallel-
ism ; and in his translation of Isaiah he presented the poetical
form of the original to the eye of his readers. In this he was
followed amongst others by Koppe, who translated his Isaiah into
German, by Gesenius in the translation prefixed to his Com-
mentary, and by the English scholar Henderson (1840). Un-
fortunately this practice suffered a check ; and even in Cheyne's
Commentary,! which in other respects marked a notable advance
in the criticism and interpretation of the Book, the prophecies
were translated throughout in the form of prose : still more
unfortunately the RV (1885), which presented the Psalms, Job,
and other poetical parts of the OT in poetical form, by printing
the Prophets as prose, obscured the important fact that the
greater part of these books is no less poetical in form than either
Psalms or Job.
Parallelism is one of the forms of Hebrew poetry : is it the
only one? Since the time of Lowth the question of Hebrew
metre, which he had treated as non-existent or irrecoverable,
has received repeated attention. Into the general question \ it
is impossible to enter at length here ; but it is necessary to
explain the principle on which the form given to the translations,
and the account taken of metre in the Commentary, have been
decided.
45. In the translations the division into lines has been deter-
mined primarily by regard to parallelism : i.e. Lowth's method
has been resumed. This would be justifiable even if the metre
were always clearly to be recognised — which it is not; for there
would be no reason to adopt in translating from Hebrew a
method which for good reasons has found no favour with those
who have translated the metrical lines of other poetry: in
translations (which are not themselves metrical) from Homer or
Vergil, for example, it is not customary to distinguish in the
* De Sacra Poesi Hebraeorum Praelectiones (1753) ; A new translation of
Isaiah (1778).
t The Prophecies of Isaiah (1880, 1882 ; ed. 5, 1889).
X Cp. Harper, Amos and Hosea (in this series), pp. clxiv-clxix, and W. H.
Cobb, A Criticism of Systems of Hebrew Metre (1905), — a useful survey of the
subject, with (pp. 191-202) an extensive bibliography.
POETICAL FORMS OF THE PROPHETIC LITERATURE Ixi
translation the lines of the original ; neither is there any reason
so to distinguish the Hebrew metrical lines if, or when, these
lines do not coincide with the periods of parallelism, as Du., for
example, has not infrequently done (see, e.g., p. 212 below, note
on the structure of 11^"^).
46. But parallelism is not a constant phenomenon of
Hebrew poetry : lines frequently occur which are not related to
their neighbours by parallelism of terms, or even by a general
parallelism of sense. What Lowth called "synthetic parallel-
ism" (Dr. LOT 363) is in reality absence of parallelism in
lines such as
Yet I have set my king
Upon Zion, my holy hill.
But in a poem which contains for the most part lines parallel in
sense, the remainder of the poem in which parallelism is absent
tends to fall into periods of the same length. So, in the example
just cited,
'^mp -in ji-'v^y
contains two periods of the same length as the periods in
v.i of the same Psalm which are related to one another by
parallelism —
If an entire poem contained no parallel lines, there would be no
sound reason for distinguishing the lines in the English transla-
tion ; yet if the end of the lines always coincided with a pause
in the sense, the line-division might be retained in English as a
form of articulation ; and when, as is most frequently the case,
parallelism is sometimes present, sometimes (though generally
less frequently) absent, it is convenient to show the line-division
throughout.
This approximation to a similar length and rhythmical
character in the periods of a poem is the best evidence that
parallelism is not the only form of Hebrew poetry, but that it
followed also certain rhythmical laws, however elastic those laws
may have been.
47, So far it is assumed that the rhythmical unit and the
Ixii INTRODUCTION
sense divisions in Hebrew poetry are identical; and that that
poetry has nothing to show like —
Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed
In the beginning how the heavens and earth
Rose out of Chaos; or if Sion hill
Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flowed
Fast by the oracle of God, I thence
Invoke thy aid to my advent'rous song —
in which passage the rhythmical units regularly close where there
is no sense-division, and the pauses of sense occur in the middle of
the rhythmical units. If the assumption is wrong, and if Sievers
is right in his contention that " run on " lines do occur even with
frequency in Hebrew poetry, it might have a considerable bearing
on textual criticism ; but it would not affect the correct method
of dividing the lines in an English translation : these might and
should still serve the useful purpose of clearly presenting the
parallelistic structure coinciding with sense-divisions.
But the more elaborate metrical analysis of Hebrew texts,
such as Bickell or Sievers oifers, rest on too precarious a basis to
be made as yet a secure instrument even of textual criticism.
48. The prominent element in Hebrew poetry is the accented
syllable; the laws that governed the number of unaccented
syllables that accompanied it are obscure, though it is obviously
an over-statement, as Cobb (pp. cit. 123 f.) caustically points out,
to say that the number of unaccented syllables was " a matter of
no consequence" (Harper, Amos and Hosea, p. clxvii). We
may, then, at the present stage of investigations into Hebrew
metre, obtain a provisional determinant of rhythm in Hebrew
poetry by observing the accented syllables. Each word, or each
complex of words united by makkeph, represents, generally
speaking, a single-word accent ; it may be that in some cases in
a word of five or more syllables the secondary accent also ranks
as a word-accent, and that, e.g. ioi^na^ Ps 2^, DiTnn^njn Is lo^sd
contains not one accent only, but two. Seeing that MT can no
more be trusted in its particular applications of makkeph than in
POETICAL FORMS OF THE PROPHETIC LITERATURE Ixiii
respect of the vowels, it will be seen that there is room even in
this simpler determination of rhythm for no little uncertainty.
49. Broadly speaking, the lines of Hebrew poetry are related
to one another in one of two ways : they are equal, or they are
unequal; in the one case we have a balancing rhythm^ in the
other an echoing rhythm ; for example, in i^
)r]:\> niB^ jn^ 3'- "^ ' ' rH
v5>y3 D)3K i^om , . _ t.«-^ *^^
the lines in each couplet balance one another ; each line of the
first couplet certainly contains three accents; each line of the
second couplet also contains three accents, if MT is right,
and it probably is so, in leaving the nh in each line unconnected
by makkeph with the verb ; if the makkeph is inserted the lines
still balance, but the length of each is two accents. In the
one case the couplet may be described as 3 : 3, in the other
as 2 : 2.
50. Examples of echoing rhythm* are found later in the
same chapter, especially in vv.^i-^s, and also, e.g.^ in 132-8 14^-21 ^
J 21. 26. 27 ujay serve as examples :
nW niTin na^K ^ : ^
man esK'Da n^v
npi'ii rvi^in
In each of these couplets a line of three accents is followed
by a line of two : the rhythm is 3 : 2.
51. Within the broad distinction into balancing and echoing
couplets, minor distinctions are to be observed, especially in
balancing couplets : the length of the lines in balancing couplets
* On account of its use in elegies, this rhythm has also been termed the
Ktnah [elegy) rhythm. But it can no longer be maintained that the rhythm
\s peculiar to elegy, though it may be said to be characteristic of it. On this
rhythm, see Budde, ZATW^ 1882, pp. 1-52; Dr. ZOT' 457-459 ; EBi. s.v.
Lamentation^ § 2, and Poetical Literature^ § 8. For examples in the Book
of Isaiah of the rhythm not in elegy, see i^"'- 40^''
V
t^
•,1.
Ixiv
INTRODUCTION
commonly varies between two and four accents : e.g. 32^1 contains
two couplets 2:2:
nnton nm
and in addition to i^ given above, ^i^^'^' ^ ^^ may serve as
examples of 3 : 3 :
Couplets which in the last analysis are 4 : 4 are rarer. Of
course, wherever a succession of couplets 2 : 2 occurs, it would
be possible, by combining two lines, to express the rhythm as
4 : 4. The real distinction, however, lies here — that in some
periods of four accents there is a marked pause after the second
accent, and also the two parts of this period of four accents are
parallel in sense (cp. 32^1 above), whereas in others there is
neither pause nor parallelism within the periods in either line,
or at least not in both of the lines of four accents that constitute
the couplet. Clear examples of couplets 4
4 are 5^^ q^^* «* :
"1-VP3 nnDlJ'3 l-JD^ IHDK^
See also note on rhythm prefixed to chs. 15 f.
Periods of five accents without a pause scarcely occur ; for
most couplets 5 : 5 can also be treated rhythmically as double
couplets of 3 : 2, with 2 : 3 as a rare variant. And the same
is true of periods of six accents, though these may occasionally,
from certain points of view, be treated as rhythmical units ; for
successive periods may be differently divided, some into 3 : 3,
others in 2:2:2; see on i^^* and 261-^^; cp. also, e.g.^ Ps i^ —
2:2:2 followed by 3 : 3.
52. There is less variety in echoing couplets: the prevailing
type of these is 3 : 2, already illustrated (§ 50). Obviously
3 : 2 may be regarded as an abbreviated 3 : 3, and we might,
therefore, expect 2 : i and 4 : 3, abbreviations of 2 : 2 and 4 : 4
POETICAL FORMS OF THE PROPHETIC LITERATURE Ixv
respectively, to be as frequent variations on 3 : 2 as are 2 : 2
and 4 : 4 on 3 : 3 ; but 2 : i is not, at least, a frequent variant,
and 4 : 3 (cp. Sievers' frequent "Siebeners") rarely possesses
the characteristic echoing value of 3 : 2. Interchanging with
3 : 2 we find rather 4 : 2 or 2 : 2.
That the echo is the really characteristic thing in periods of
five accents appears from two considerations: (i) these periods
are, with the rarest exceptions, divided into 3:2; the obvious
alternative 2 : 3, which would give no echoing effect, does occur,
but with such rarity * that some writers consider its occurrence
sufficient evidence that the lines have suffered accidental trans-
position: such accidents certainly occurred, for see Ps 18**^ =
2 S 22**^; (2) the rhythmic echo is frequently combined with a
sense echo, i.e. two terms of the first line are paralleled in the
second line, the third is not merely not paralleled, — that happens
often enough in parallel couplets 3 : 3, — but it has nothing
corresponding to it.
53. So far this analysis of the rhythmical facts has been
confined to the couplet, f or distich, which is so prevalent in
all Hebrew poetry. There also occur, though with far less
frequency, monostichs and tristichs; tetrastichs, too, though
these can generally be regarded as two distichs. The distich
is a rhythmical complex in itself: the monostich is not ; it merely
acquires a specific rhythmical quality from its relation to other
lines, most of which will almost invariably be found to be com-
bined into distichs. The monostich is a period in a poem
equivalent in length to one line of a distich. A tristich is a
complex of three rhythmically similar lines, and for this reason
can only occur in balancing rhythm. Both monostichs and
tristichs are of relatively rare occurrence even in the existing
text, and in the original they were probably rarer still. Whether
three lines are to be regarded as a tristich, or as a distich followed
or preceded by a monostich, will sometimes, when all three lines
are not parallels, be uncertain. In the translations the second
line of the distich and the second and third of tristichs are inset.
* Cp. Sievers, Metrische Siudien, pp. 1 1 1 f.
t It is because the couplet is so characteristic of Hebrew poetry that I
prefer the symbols 2 : 2, 3 : 3, 4 : 4, 3 : 2, etc., which describe the couplet,
to the terms dimeter, trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter, hexameter, for lines
of two, three, four, five, and six accents respectively.
VOL. I. — e
Ixvi INTRODUCTION
54. Rhythmically similar periods may, from the point of view
of parallelism, be different in character : and inasmuch as par-
allelism is made the basis of the line-divisions of the translations
in this volume, rhythmically similar periods are differently
treated. This applies more especially to the typical echoing
lines. In the examples given above the entire period of five
accents divides into two unequal lines, of which the second and
shorter is parallel to the first and longer :
And I will restore thy judges as at the first,
And thy counsellors as at the beginning.
Denoting the ideas or main terms by a. b. c, and the parallel
ideas by a' b', etc., the scheme is a. b. c | b' c'. In other cases
there is no parallelism between the unequal divisions of the
period of five accents ; and parallelism, if it occurs, is between
the entire periods — the scheme being a. b. c. d. e | a' b' c' d' e',
or, almost invariably, with less complete correspondence, a. b. c.
d. e — a' b' c' f. g., and so forth ; cp., for example :
I am satiated with burnt-offerings of rams and fat of fed
beasts ;
And in the blood of bullocks and he-goats I delight not.
Here the distich is 5 : 5, and the parallelism of terms or ideas,
which extends over the entire length of the lines, may be repre-
sented thus : — a. b. c. (b). d | b' c' d' a'. But if parallelism
were disregarded and rhythm only considered, each line of the
above distich would be correctly described as 3 : 2.
55. Enough, perhaps, has been said to indicate the chief
varieties of couplets or distichs that occur in Hebrew. There
remains the question. How are such distichs combined into a
poem ? Must a poem consist entirely of distichs identical both
in rhythmical quantity and in rhythmical quality? For example,
does a poem necessarily consist of a succession of couplets 3:3;
and, if the couplets are occasionally interrupted by monostichs
or tristichs, must these consist exclusively of lines of three
accents? Or is it possible for couplets 3 : 3 to be interchanged
with other balancing distichs 2 : 2 or 4 : 4, or even with couplets
of another quality and kind, viz. the echoing couplets 3:2?
Certainly in our present text we get almost every possible
combination, within a few verses, and, unless all the separate
POETICAL FORMS OF THE PROPHETIC LITERATURE Ixvii
poems are exceedingly short, within the same poem. But (i)
the mixture of lines of different quality, the echoing and the
balancing, is probably far less frequent than the mixture of
lines of different length but of the same quality ; (2) the extent
of mixture, even of lines of the same quality but of different
length, was probably less in the original texts ; (3) the extent
of mixture differs greatly, at all events in the present text, in
different poems ; (4) it is generally possible to discern a
dominant rhythm^ i.e. a rhythm which occurs more frequently
throughout the poem in question than any other rhythm, and
commonly more often than all other rhythms put together.
56. If the preceding remarks suggest that there is considerable
uncertainty or irregularity in Hebrew rhythms or metre, they
will very correctly convey the impression left on the present
writer by his study of them. Is the uncertainty and irregularity
so great as to cast doubt on the very existence of rhythm, or, at
least, on the value of these rhythmical uncertainties and irregu-
larities for the criticism or interpretation of the Book? Such
scepticism is not unnaturally provoked by the far-reaching
changes that are often made in the text in obedience to hypo-
thetical laws of metre. On the other hand, there is too much
approximation even to metrical regularity to justify such com-
plete scepticism. The notes on rhythm prefixed to the various
poems must be left to tell their own tale : the attempt is there
made to analyse the actual facts of the existing text, and to give
the reader a clue to, if not always a complete statement of, the
differences in quantity or quality in the Hebrew text of the
lines and distichs of the poem, as presented in the translations.
Without some such statement the reader would often acquire a
very erroneous impression — sometimes suspecting irregularity
where regularity prevails, and sometimes the reverse ; * a refer-
ence back to these notes will also give a measure of the value to
be set on the rhythmical considerations when such are sub-
sequently referred to in the commentary or philological notes.
It may be rarely wise to insist on any textual change merely
on rhythmical grounds : on the other hand, when rhythmical and
other considerations point towards the same change, though
each consideration taken by itself may have slight weight, taken
* This needs to be borne in mind by those who use the translations of Du. ,
Cheyne, or Box.
Ixviii
INTRODUCTION
together they may have much. Further, though a line may seem
abnormally long, all that the rhythm will suggest is that one or
more words are intrusive ; it will not determine which — unless,
indeed, we can pass beyond the detection of rhythm of word
accents to syllabic rhythm.
Again, the mere occurrence of a 2:2 distich in the midst ot
3 : 3 distichs (as, e.g., in 2^-^) may be a very unsafe ground for
treating the 2 : 2 distich as intrusive. On the other hand, a
change in the dominant rhythm, as, say, from 3 : 3 to 3 : 2 (see
chs. 13. 34), may generally raise a suspicion that we have passed
from one poem to another.
57. A further form of Hebrew poetry is the strophe. If the
lines of the original be leproduced in the translation, so, too, should
the strophes. They are marked off in the translation by spaces.
In some cases the strophic division is obvious, as, e.g., in
g'^-io*, where each strophe closes with a refrain. In other cases
the division is less obvious; we can only be guided by the
greater sense-pauses.
In connection with the strophe, the question of regularity
again presents itself. Are the strophes of a poem necessarily
of the same length ? In certain cases they appear to be so ; in
others it is doubtful whether there is more than some approxima-
tion to regularity. Du., in general, succeeds in reducing the
poems to strophes of regular length, but sometimes at con-
siderable cost; see the notes in this Commentary prefixed to
11^-8 13.
§§ S^~73' — Isaiah in relation to the political and social
conditions of his age.
58. The greater part of Isaiah's life fell within the last half
of the 8th cent. B.C., but he must have been born from ten to
twenty years before 750 ; and, since he was certainly living and
active in 701, he probably outlived the century, possibly even by
as much as ten or twelve years. In his boyhood his countryman
Amos, of the land and kingdom of Judah, prophesied against
the neighbouring kingdom of Israel ; and Jerusalem, the home of
Isaiah, lay about half-way between Tekoa, the home of Amos,
and Bethel, the scene of his preaching. Both Tekoa and Bethel
lay within an easy day's walk of Jerusalem, at a distance of
■
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS OF THE AGE Ixix
about twelve miles from the capital. In Isaiah's early manhood
and the first years of his own activity as a prophet, Hosea, a
native of the Northern kingdom, was preaching to his own
people of judgment to come ; and about half-way through Isaiah's
active life his teaching was enforced by Micah. Isaiah living
in the capital, and Micah living in the country, a day's journey
towards the coast, and the coast road by which merchants and
soldiers from time immemorial had passed, as they still passed,
from the valley of the Euphrates to the valley of the Nile,
saw and judged some things differently, yet with fundamental
agreement.
59. Isaiah received the call to prophesy in the year that
Uzziah, king of Judah, died (6^), i.e. in, or within a year or
two of, 740 B.C. — as late as 738 on one interpretation of
certain Assyrian records, not necessarily quite so late as 740
on another.
Ahaz became king of Judah not later than 735 B.C., for Tiglath-pileser * ^
ipentions him (Ja-u-ha-zi (mit) Ja-u-da-ai) along with other Syrian princes as
paying tribute to him in 734 B.C. ; and, according to 2 K 16', Is 7^*^', he was
already king during the Syro-Ephraimitish war which preceded Tiglath-pileser's \
campaign of 734. To Ahaz' predecessor, Jotham, the Book of Kings assigns
a reign of 16 years, which would carry back the death year of Uzziah to
751 ; but, as is well known, these chronological statements of Kings cannot
be implicitly trusted ; a date as early as 751 for Isaiah's call is improbable,
since he was still active 50, if not 60, years after that date. ..
Now, in the Annals of the year 738, Tiglath-pileser mentions an Azariah '~)'Z^ i*^'
(Az-ri-ia-a-u, 1. 131 ; Az-ri-a-[u], 1. 123 ; [Az-ri-i]a-a-u, 1. in ; [Is-ri-]ia-a-u,
104; Is-ri-ia-u, 105) of the land of Ja-u-da-ai (1. 104), or Ja-u-di (1. 105).
Since Uzziah of Judah was (also) called Azariah according to several passages
in the OT (cp. 6^n.), there seemed to be at least a good prima facie case
for the identification of "Az-ri-ia-u (mat) Ja-u-da-ai (Ja-u-di)," and n'ly (or
nm.T ^'?D (nnTy. S>chra.Aex {Keilinschriften und Geschichtsforshung^ ^^. 395-
421 ; cp. KAT^) argued for the identification, and it was generally accepted,
with the result that Uzziah's death was placed in 740 (the year to which
Schrader erroneously referred this part of the Annals) or later. It thus
became necessary to contract Jotham's reign within very narrow limits.
On the basis of Rost's edition of the Annals (1893), which placed several
things in a new light, and of native inscriptions of a land of '^N' in northern
Syria discovered in 1890 close to Zinjirli (see now Cooke, NSI^ pp. 159 ff-)*
Winckler {Altor. Forschungeriy i. 1-23) challenged the identification, and
argued that the Az-ri-ya-u of the inscriptions was not king of Judah ^^'^'')
but of nx', to which the Assyrian Ja-u-di might equally well correspond.
* Clay Tablet, Reverse 1. il.
Ixx INTRODUCTION
Briefly stated the case stands thus : according to the inscription, Az-ri-ia-u
was the prime mover in opposition to Assyria, and was supported by 19
districts of Hamath ; these districts were conquered by Tiglath-pileser and
made an Assyrian province ; the fate of Az-ri-ia-u himself is, owing to a muti-
lation of the inscription, obscure : " 19 districts of Hamath . . . which in
their sin and folly had taken the side of Az-ri-ia-u I added to the territory of
Assyria" (11. 130-132) ; cp. "who had taken the side of and strengthened
Az-ri-ia-u" (1. ill).
Now it would certainly be remarkable if two contemporary kings of two
countries, the names of which are scarcely distinguishable, had the same
name ; remarkable also, in spite of the parallel case of Jaubidi, king of
Hamath in 720 B.C. (Sargon, Nimrud-inscription, 1. 8), that a king of a
northern Syrian state should bear a name compounded with n\ On the
other hand, (i) it is not certain that Azariah rather than, or as well as,
Uzziah was the name of the king of Judah ; (2) a somewhat parallel caprice
of similarity, which certainly led to a wrong identification, is afforded by Mena-
hem, king of Israel (and therefore of Samaria), in 738 B.C., and Menal?em,
king of Samsimuruna in 701 B.C. (Sennacherib's inscription : Taylor Cylinder,
ii. 47) ; (3) nothing in the OT, or in what is otherwise known of the history
of the period, would lead us to expect that Uzziah of Judah would be the
leader of an opposition to Assyria, and supported by the distant districts of
Hamath (only) ; (4) so late a date as 738 for the death of Uzziah, though not
impossible, is, failing direct evidence, not very probable.
60. Of Isaiah's life between the year of his call, c. 740 b.c.
and 735 we have no direct and unambiguous records ; but we may
infer from 8^ (n.) that he had during these years himself grown
assured of, and probably also gained recognition for, his pro-
phetic calling. In pursuit of it he may have visited Ephraim
(§ 39)j ^^^ spoken according to the tenor of 9^-10'*. In 6-8*
we can trace his activity in the opening years of the reign of
Ahaz, who succeeded to the throne c. 735. He had then been
already some time married, and was the father of a child at least
three or four years old (7^n.), to whom he had given the name
Shear- Yashub, which, meaning "a Remnant shall return," ex-
pressed an important element in his teaching (§ 86). He appears
to have had easy access to the king (71^- : chs. 36 ff.), and he
may have belonged to a family of some standing, though the
inference to this effect drawn from 8^ is precarious, and the view
that he was of royal blood (i^n.) rests on nothing more than
Rabbinic ingenuity. Another son was born to him in 734, and
to the younger as to the elder he gave a name, Maher-shalal-
hash baz, embodying one prominent element in his teaching, his\^
conviction, viz., that Damascus and Israel were doomed to early 1
V
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS OF THE AGE Ixxi
extinction. In thus using these opportunities of his domestic
life to enforce and emphasise his teaching, he was adopting
a practice, and perhaps dehberately following the example, of
Hosea (Hos i). At this time, as probably throughout his life,
he was resident in Jerusalem (cp. 6^ 7^ 22^^^- 28^* 36-39).
61. For more than twenty years (c. 733-711) the life of
Isaiah remains a blank to us, except so far as we can follow it by
surmise and conjecture : there is no narrative of this period,
except, perhaps, that which records the embassy from Merodach-
baladan (ch. 39), and no prophecy that can wt't/i certainty be
referred to these years (though see 14^® n. 28^-^). And yet within
these twenty years falls the most outstanding event, for a Jew,
of the whole century: in 72*, Samaria, the capital of the
Northern kingdom, was, after a three years' siege, captured by
the Assyrians ; the tribes, which had hitherto been the more
numerous and more powerful common inheritors with Judah of
the Land of Promise which Yahweh the God of Israel had given
to His people, were exiled, and their land became an Assyrian
province.
The fact, if it be a fact,* that Judah between 734 and 711
quietly accepted the Assyrian over-lordship and took no part in
the attempts of Samaria in 724-722, or of several neighbouring
states in 720, to cast it off, is at best scarcely more than a partial
reason for this remarkable silence. Isaiah certainly preached
a policy of non-intervention ; and if Judah during this period
practised it, Isaiah may have been satisfied with the external
policy of Judah, and so have found little occasion for reiterating
this particular element in his teaching. But the injustice and
unrighteousness against which he also raised his voice were
scarcely less in need of denunciation during these years than
during other parts of his life. Some of the prophecies, the date
of which cannot be closely determined, may therefore belong to
these years : for example, parts of chs. 2-5.
* Neither the OT nor the Assyrian inscriptions directly record any
revolt of Judah from Assyria during this period. But in an inscription of the
year 717, Sargon speaks of himself as mu-sak-nis {mdtu) Ja-u-du sa asar-su
ru-u-ku, "subduer of the far-off land of Ja-u-di" (Nimrod Inscription, 1. 8 ;
KB ii. 37). From this it has sometimes been inferred (cp. KAT^ 67) that
Judah took part in the Syrian revolt of 720, as it certainly did in the revolt
of 711. It is, however, possible that Ja-u-di is here nK» and not .tiiT. See
above, § 59.
Ixxii
INTRODUCTION
62. Ch. 20, a narrative referring to the year 711 B.C., relates
that, on one occasion at least, Isaiah enforced his spoken
message by strange symbolical action ; for three years he went
barefoot and half-clad, and so by his conduct represented the
lot of those whose captivity he predicted.
Again some years are a blank, and then, in a series of
prophecies (in chs. 28^-31, and, perhaps, ch. 18) we are able
to trace, and in a group of narratives (chs. 36 f. and perhaps
also 38 f.) to see the deep impression left on the popular mind
by, the part which Isaiah played at the time of Sennacherib's
invasion of Palestine in 701, and probably, if Sennacherib really
invaded Palestine some ten years later (§ 70), on that occasion
also.
The date of Isaiah*s death is unknown : even if the tradition,
based probably on some Midrash, and perhaps alluded to in
He 11^'', that Isaiah was sawn asunder by King Manasseh,*
deserved credence, it would determine little ; for the date of
Manasseh's accession cannot be closely or certaintly fixed;
according to some chronological schemes it is to be placed as early
as 698 — i.e. 29 years (2 K 18^) after 727, in which year, accord-
ing to one statement in the Book of Kings (2 K i2^% the earliest
date of the accession of Hezekiah must be placed, according
to others as late as 686, i.e. 29 years after the date which another
statement in Kings (2 K i2>^^), if correct, would require us to
assign to Hezekiah's accession. But the date of Isaiah's death
would be brought down to about 690 b.c. at earliest, if he really
played a part on the occasion of Sennacherib's (hypothetical)
second invasion (§ 70).
63. Isaiah's life was spent during a time of change in the
political and social conditions of Judah. This change was due
in large measure to the new and greater activity of Assyria,!
* ** Beliar was wroth with Isaiah ; and he dwelt in the heart of Manasseh,
and he sawed him in sunder with a wooden saw," Ascension of Isaiah, 5^
(probably written in the first century A.D.) ; Charles, Asc. of Isaiah, p. xliv.
t For the evidence for the details enumerated in the following sections,
see the inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser (ed. Rost, 1893), Sargon (ed. H.
Winckler, 1889), Sennacherib, Esar-haddon, and Asshurbanipal ; also the
Assyrian Eponym lists [KB i. 204-215) and the Babylonian Chronicle
{KB ii. 273 ff. ). New editions of the Inscriptions of the Assyrian kings just
mentioned are promised in the Vorderasiatische Bibliothek, but none has
yet appeared. Meantime KB ii. contains a convenient collection of most of
4
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS OF THE AGE Ixxili
which followed on the accession of Tiglaih-pileser to the throne
of that country in 745 B.C., and which was already beginning to
make itself felt in the West by the year 742, and probably, there-
fore, a year or two before the death of Uzziah and the call
of Isaiah.
Since the disruption of the united kingdoms of Judah and
the northern tribes on the death of Solomon, c. 930, Judah the
smaller had also been the weaker of the two, and often stood
rather in the position of a vassal-state to the Northern kingdom.
The attendance of Jehoshaphat of Judah on Ahab of Israel
(i K 22), when that monarch was conducting one of those
campaigns against Syria which formed the characteristic political
feature of the 9th cent. b.c., may not have been altogether
voluntary, but rather the service rendered by a vassal to his over-
lord. And this relation of the two kingdoms to one another
may account for there being no direct reference to Judah, as
distinct from Israel, in the Assyrian records of the 9th cent. Be
this as it may, Assyria had already in the 9th cent, made itself
felt among the Syrian and Palestinian states. As early as 876,
Asshurnazirpal with his army reached the coast of Northern
Phoenicia, and re-established that command of the line of
communication with the Mediterranean which had been won
by Tiglath-pileser i. in the 12th cent, and subsquently lost. To
secure what he had won, Asshurnazirpal left an Assyrian colony
in Aribua, a town near the river Sangara (mod. Nahr-el-Kebir),
and on the northern frontier of the state of Hamath. Phoenician
cities as far south as Tyre, far further south than he himself or
his army proceeded, sent him gifts. On the other hand, Damascus
was neither attacked nor, like the Phoenician states, induced to
send gifts. Shalmaneser 11. made several attempts to extend the ;
area of Assyrian authority in Syria, though at first without any
success. Ben-hadad of Damascus was the leader of a Syrian
league which checked the Assyrian advance ; his chief supporters
were Hamath and Israel. In 854, Shalmaneser fought a battle)
the more important. A clear and admirable presentation of the history of
Assyria from the accessitm of Asshurnazirpal to the death of Asshurbanipal
will be found in R. H. Rogers, History of Babylonia and Assyria {^^. 2, 1903),
ii. pp. 46-282 ; in the same work fuller references to editions and translations
of the inscriptions relating to each reign will also be found. A recent full
discussion of Sargon's reign in particular is, A. T. Olmstead, Western Asia
in the days of Sargon of Assyria (New York, 1908).
Ixxiv
INTRODUCTION
against the combined Syrian forces at Karkar near the Orontes
and further south than the Nahr-el-Kebir ; the Assyrian king
claimed a victory, but, since neither tribute nor acquisition of
territory followed, the victory was barren ; similarly fruitless were
the Assyrian western campaigns of 849 and 846 B.C. The next
campaign, that of 842 B.C.; was more effective; Ben-hadad of
Damascus had now been succeeded by Hazael, and Ahab of
Israel by Jehu. Israel had fallen away from the Syrian league,
and Jehu in this year paid tribute to Assyria, in this perhaps
anticipating the policy of Ahaz of Judah a century later {735
B.C. ; cp. Is 7). Damascus, though it suffered siege and the
ravaging of its immediate surroundings, successfully resisted
the Assyrians, and Shalmaneser was unable to capture the
city, either in this year or in 839. Nor could his successor
Shamsi-Adad (825-813 b.c.), who rather lost ground in the West :
but Adad-Nirari (812-783) repeated the limited success of
Shalmaneser; he received tribute from Israel as well as from
Sidon, Tyre, Edom, and Philistia, and he besieged and harassed,
but failed to conquer, Damascus. During the reigns of the next
three kings (782-745), Assyria suffered a marked decline; a
(probably) unsuccessful campaign against Damascus in 773, and
others against the far more northern towns of Hadrach and
Arpad in 755 and 754 respectively, exhausts the list of the
Assyrian western movements during this period. Thus for a full
generation Assyria had passed practically out of sight of Israel
and Judah, and even their bulwark (172) Damascus had felt but
little shock from Assyrian attack.
64. Egypt during the same period was also weak and divided
(§ 68), and exercised little influence and no restraint over Palestine.
Thus there was the same opportunity which David had used with
so much vigour and success three centuries before for the Pales-
tinian states to enjoy freedom from the thrall of the great Empires
of the Nile and the Tigris-Euphrates valleys, and to strive for the
supremacy among themselves. Alike in Israel and Judah the 1
period of Assyria's greatest weakness was covered by a single reign j
— of Jeroboam 11. in the North, and of Uzziah in Judah. This )
meant internal political stability not only for Judah, but for the
generally more unstable Northern kingdom. According to 2 K
1425-28 (cp^ Am 6^*), Jeroboam re-established the dominion of
Israel from the Dead Sea in the South to the entering in of
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS OF THE AGE Ixxv
yamath (cp. Nu 13^^ n.) in the North, and also gained the
supremacy over Damascus. One of the earliest and most signifi-
cant of Uzziah's achievements (2 K 14-^), unless it is rather to
be attributed to his predecessor Amaziah, was the recovery of
Elath (which was lost again by Ahaz, 2 K 16^) ; he thereby
regained for Judah that command of the trade route to the Red
Sea which Solomon had held (i K g^^), but which had subse-
quently been lost. The Chronicler, in a passage where he may
well be drawing on ancient and trustworthy data, gives further
illustrations of the success and strength of Judah at this time :
Uzziah waged successful war against the Philistines, Ammonites,
and Meunim (? Minaeans) ; he strengthened the fortifications of
Jerusalem ; he devoted himself to the rearing of cattle, of which
he had many, and agriculture (2 Ch 26®-^^).
65. The Books of Kings and Chronicles record the success
and prosperity of the kings, Jeroboam and Uzziah ; but we are
not left merely to infer from this that others besides the kings
were prosperous ; the prophecies of Amos and Isaiah speak
clearly of wealth and luxury, and the dissoluteness that accom-
panies them, in both the Northern (Am 3!^ 5I1 6'*-^, Is 9^ 17* 28^-*)
and the Southern (Is 2^ 310^. 59.12f.14.22 gg^f.) kingdoms. But
though increase of wealth extended beyond the king, it was not
widely or evenly distributed ; the lot of the weaker seems rather
to have become aggravated. Not a little of the increased wealth
was probably due to trade (see below, p. 53); and not a little of
the wealth so acquired was expended in bringing unjust pressure
to bear on the weak, in repeating the conduct of Ahab towards
Naboth which had so provoked Elijah ( i K 2 1) : the nouveaux i-iches
bought up the patrimonies of their needier fellow-countrymen ;
by aggregation great estates arose (below, pp. 90 ff.), and cruel
evictions (Mic 2^) aroused the indignation of the humane. In
the courts the weak could obtain no redress, for money again
bribed the judges (lo^).
66. But if the weaker and poorer had not shared in the
increased wealth and luxury of Uzziah's time, there is little
reason to suppose that they profited by the changes that came
after his death and during the lifetime of Isaiah : the most
immediate effect, so far as Judah was concerned, was that that
country became tributary to Assyria in 735-734 B.C. and remained
so : tribute meant heavier taxation, and this was doubtless to a
Ixxvi INTRODUCTION
large extent wrung out of the poor, even though the king obtained
it directly from the "mighty men" of Judah (cp. 2 K 15^0 of
Israel). Be that as it may, this is clear : whereas Isaiah had
grown up to early manhood in the latter half of a long and pros-
perous reign, a citizen of a country that paid no tribute to any
foreign power, near neighbour to the kindred kingdom of Israel,
which was also free and prosperous, within a year or two of his
call he had seen the kingdom of Israel torn by faction after the
death of Jeroboam {c. 746), and heard of Assyria's more vigorous
action in the West. Arpad offered a stern resistance to Tiglath-
pileser, but in 740 it fell before him ; and Assyria recovered what
the kings of the 9th century had won for it, and their weaker
successors had lost — access to the Mediterranean. But this was
merely the prelude to greater achievements in the West than the
greatest of the past; in 738, Tiglath-pileser defeated an extensive
coalition of Syrian states, which included, or consisted of, "19
districts of Hamath," " which in their disloyalty had fallen away
to Azriyau of the land of Ja-u-di," who is identified by many
with Uzziah (Azariah), king of Judah (see above, p. Ixx) ; these
districts he made an Assyrian province ; he captured Kullani
(lo"^ n.) ; he received tribute, amongst others, from Rason of
Damascus, Menahem of Samaria (whose land, according to 2 K
151^^-, he had invaded), Hirom of Tyre, and Zabibi, queen of
Arabia. About 735, Ahaz paid tribute (2 K i6''^-), and hence-
forward Judah was tributary to Assyria. In 734, Tiglath-pileser
was in Philistia, and captured Gaza, furthest S. of the Philistine
cities and nearest to Egypt; in 733 and 732 he was attacking
Damascus and Israel ; in the former year he captured the northern
districts of Israel (2 K 15^^), and in the latter year he achieved
what his predecessor in the 9th century had attempted and failed
to achieve, the capture of Damascus ; the native sovereignty was
abolished (17^); Damascus became an Assyrian province. Ten
years later, in consequence of Hoshea's withholding the annual
tribute to Assyria (2 K 17*), the same fate befell Samaria, after a
protracted siege (724-722) conducted by Shalmaneser (727-722)
and Sargon (722-705) successively. In accordance with the
new Assyrian policy, the Israelites were carried captive to dis-
tant districts (Gozan, Media, etc. — 2 K 17^), while Babylonians,
Cuthites, and others were settled in Samaria. Henceforward,
instead of a kindred people, Judah had on its northern border
I!
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS OF THE AGE Ixxvii
which lay but an easy day's walk from Jerusalem, an Assyrian
province and a mixed population (2 K ly^*-*^).
67. In 720, Sargon quelled an important and extensive rising
in Syria, which may have been instigated or fomented by
Merodach-baladan of Babylon (see on ch. 39) ; he defeated
Yaubidi of Hamath at Karkar — the scene of an earlier victory
of Shalmaneser 11. (p. Ixxiv) — and the combined forces of IJanno
of Gaza and Sibe (Biblical So, or rather S^w^) of Musri (Egypt? :
see § 68 f.) at Raphia, on the coast between Gaza and Egypt ;
perhaps also in the same campaign he inflicted defeat on Judah
(but see above, p. Ixxi n.).
In 715, Sargon (Annals, 97-99) subdued certain Arab tribes,
and received tribute from, amongst others, Pir'u (? Pharaoh),
king of Mu§ur (? Egypt). It may be surmised that Judah did
not remain uninterested in these events, but there is no evidence
that in this year it took any active part in opposition to Sargon,
or that Sargon came any nearer to Judah than Arabia.
In 711, by his Tartan (20^) rather than in person, Sargon
quelled another rising, of which Ashdod was the centre, but in
which not only Philistia, but also Moab, Edom, and Judah were
concerned (see Sargon's Annals, 205-221 ; General Inscription,
90-110). Moreover, behind these Palestinian states stood,
according to Is 20^, Egypt and Ethiopia (DnVD and triD) ; accord-
ing to Sargon's inscriptions, Musur and Miluhha, which have
commonly likewise been equated with Egypt and Ethiopia.
68. In 712 (Breasted) the Ethiopian dynasty established its authority over,
and at the same time brought union and increased strength to, Egypt, Till
recently (see below) it was supposed that Sabako, the first of the Ethiopian
kings of Egypt, succeeded to the throne as early as 728 : on that hypothesis,
now known to be erroneous, there was little difficulty in accounting for
Egypt, or, as under the circumstances, it was quite natural to say, Ethiopia,
intriguing with the Syrian states and inducing them to oppose Assyria ; the
identification of So (Kio, 2 K 17* MT), or rather S6we (Kip, cp. Assyr. Sib'i),
with Sabako, though frequently made, was always more questionable and, in-
deed, indefensible. Before the accession of the Ethiopian dynasty lies a period
of great obscurity in Egyptian history, though this much may be said, that the
Delta was at the time governed by a number of petty princes, and the Pharaoh
of the lists who is mentioned immediately before Sabako is Bokchoris. It is
possible, then, as Breasted even recently has written (A^zV/. of Egypt, S49f.),
that So (2 K 17*) was "an otherwise unknown Delta dynast," that "unable
to oppose the formidable armies of Assyria, the petty kinglets of Egypt con-
stantly fomented discontent and revolt among the Syro-Palestinian states, in
Ixxviii INTRODUCTION
order, if possible, to create a fringe of buffer states between them and the
Assyrians," possible also that the " Pir'u, king of Musur," of Sargon's record of
715 B.C. was Bokchoris, who in that case is mentioned by his title (Pharaoh)
instead of his proper name ; just as Hebrew writers use the expression, not
found in Egyptian, "Pharaoh, king of Egypt" {e.g. 36^ n., cp. F. LI.
Griffith, in DB, s.v. "Pharaoh").
Alt {Israel u. Aegypten^ pp. 44 ff.) conceives the situation somewhat dift'er-
ently : according to him, the pressure of Ethiopia on Egypt, which had already
become severe in the time of the Ethiopian Pi'ankhi (from about 741 B.C.
according to Breasted's chronology, or earlier according to others), had brought
about a certain reaction against the gradual dissolution of the Egyptian kingdom
into a large number of petty princedoms, especially in the Delta, that marked
the period of the 22nd and 23rd dynasties {c. 945-f. 718, Breasted). The
Pi'ankhi stele (Breasted, Ancient Records, iv. 860-883) reveals Tefhakhte
of Sais, whose son Bokchoris became the sole ruler of the 24th dynasty,
as exercising a supremacy over the Delta princes, and as so far anticipating
that renewed unity of Egypt which certainly marks the time of the Ethiopian
dynasty. Under these circumstances, Tefnakhte may already have exercised
sufficient political farsightedness to have perceived the danger threatening
Egypt from Assyria, and to have provoked the Palestinian states to oppose
the Assyrian advances.
But there are certainly here unsolved, or but partially solved, problems ;
and Winckler, and after him others, have sought quite another way out.
69. As early as 1893, Winckler, in Altor. Forschtmgen, i. 24 ff., argued that
the Assyrian Musur and the Hebrew Misraim in many cases meant not
Egypt, but "the country abutting on Edom, the later Nabataea." In his
earlier or later discussions of the subject, accordingly, Sibe, the ally of IJanno
of Gaza, becomes an Arab sheikh, and Pir'u (cp. the Sabaean nn:' yns), king
of Mu§ur in 715, is Arabian not Egyptian; it is again the Arabian people
whom Pir'u ruled, and not Egypt under the new Ethiopian dynasty, that stand
behind the revolting Palestinians in 71 1 and even in 701; Egypt first
co-operates with Palestine under Tirhakah in the (hypothetical) second cam-
paign of Sennacherib in Palestine about 691 B.C. (see § 70). The theory
that the Assyrian Musur and the Hebrew DnsfD may refer not only to Egypt,
* but also to a district in North Arabia, has also been presented by others ;
various forms of the theory and various conclusions drawn from it may be
studied in H. Winckler, Alt&r. Forschungen (1893), i. 24-41, Musri-Meluhha,
Mdin (1898), KAT^ (1903), 67, 70-72, I36-I5i» ^72, 273 (see also Index,
s.v. Mu§ri), Die jungsten Kdmpfer wider den Panbabylonismus (1907);
F. Hommel, Vier neue Arabische Landschaftsnamen ; T. K. Cheyne, Mizraim^
in EBi. iii. (1902), and, e.g., Traditions and Beliefs of Ancient Israel {i^o^),
xi f, 1 71-173; Decline and Fall of the Kingdom of Judah (1908), xiii ff.,
xlif., 88; The Two Religions of Israel {\<)ii), pp. 335, 345. 356-361 (see also
references in Index to Misrim in the three works last named). It is not
without significance that Breasted in his History of Egypt is able to dispense
with the theory of the North Arabian Mu?ri, and that Ed. Meyer {Die
Israeliten u. ihre Nachbarstdmme { 1 906), 455-47 1 ) decisively and totally rejects
the theory ; see also against the theory in its application to the times of
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS OF THE AGE Ixxix
Isaiah, Fr. Kiichler, Die Stellting des Propheten Jesaja zur Politk seiner Zeit
(1906) ; A. T. Olmstead, Western Asia in the days of Sargon of Assyria
(1908), pp. 56-71. A. Alt in his survey of the relations between Israel and
Egypt in the time of Isaiah {Israel u. Aegypten, 1909, pp. 41-87), while
admitting Pir'u, king of Mu§ur in 715 B.C. (Sargon, Annals, 97), to bean
Arabian, limits the significance of the Arabian Mu§ur, and allows far more
for the activity of Egypt in Palestine than do most of those who admit the
existence of a kingdom of Musur in Arabia.
Fortunately for the understanding of Isaiah, it is of relatively little im-
portance whether between 720 and 701 B.C. the power that kept stirring up
the Palestinian states was Egypt, the history of which country immediately
prior to 712 is obscure, or Mu§ur in North Arabia, of which, as an inde-
pendent kingdom in Arabia sufficiently important to divide with Assyria the
interests of Palestinian states, nothing is known for certain, and which,
perhaps, has never enjoyed more than a speculative existence.
70. Sennacherib, Sargon's successor, had also once at least
to secure Assyrian authority in Syria by force: in 701, Philistia
and Judah at the instigation, not of an Arabian kingdom of
Musur or Meluhha (Wi.), but of the Ethiopian dynasty in Egypt,
were in revolt. In two respects Sennacherib's campaign, which
was undertaken to suppress this revolt, was not an unqualified
success : victory over the Egyptians at Eltekeh was not followed
up by an invasion of Egypt itself, and Jerusalem, though it was
besieged, was not captured. Nevertheless Judah, in common
with the rest of Syria, remained tributary to Assyria. According
to a hypothesis which would explain the allusion to Tirhakah
in 37®, Sennacherib was again called back to Syria {c. 690 b.c.) :
the nearest support for this hypothesis in Assyrian sources is an
account of a campaign against Arabia, the date of which is un-
known, but which may have taken place about 690.
This campaign was already known by allusions to it in inscriptions ot
Esarhaddon and Asshurbanipal, when in 1904 (Orientalische Literatur-
zeitung, cols. 69, 70), Scheil announced the discovery of an inscription of
Sennacherib describing the campaign. This inscription was published by
Ungnad, in Vorderasiatische Schriftdenkmdler, i. 77 ff.; and in a translation,
for which I am indebted to Prof. R. W. Rogers, it runs as follows :
*' Telhunu, the queen of Arabia, in the desert, from her I took away a
thousand camels. The fear of my dominion cast her down, and Hazail also.
They left their tents and fled to Adummatu, whose location is in the desert,
a place of thirst, where there is neither provision nor place to drink." If
from Arabia, Sennacherib (who is himself described in Herod, (ii. 141) as
'* king of the Arabians and of the Assyrians," and whose army, as the " army
of the Arabians"), somewhat repeating his movements of 701, advanced on,
without entering, Egypt, and also attacked Judah, it would be possible to
Ixxx INTRODUCTION
regard the different narratives which, it is clear, have been combined in
chs. 36 f. (see Comm. ), as narratives of different events and not different and
discordant narratives of the same event, and also to justify the allusion to
** Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia" (37^) ; Tirhakah was not king of Ethiopia in
701, he was king in or soon after 694. On the other hand, it is doubtful
whether either Hezekiah or Isaiah, who are also associated with the narra-
tive that refers to Tirhakah, were alive in 690 ; Isaiah would probably at that
time have been between 70 and 80 years of age. Some further discussion of
these points will be found in the discussion of chs. 36 f. in the Comm.
71. Since the Egyptian chronology comes into consideration on several
occasions, it may be convenient briefly to indicate here the grounds on which,
contrary to earlier views, the date of Tirhakah's accession can be fixed with
certainty as falling after 701 B.C., and consequently the beginning of the
Ethiopian dynasty as falling about 712 or 714 B.C., and not as early as 728.
According to a Serapeum stele (Breasted, Ancient Records^ iv. 959), an
Apis died at the age of 21 years, 2 months, 7 days, on the 21st day of the
I2th month of the 20th year of Psamtik : since according to the same stele
the Apis was born in the 26th year of Tirhakah, Tirhakah's reign cannot have
exceeded 27 years. Now Tirhakah was certainly still alive and king in
668-667, for Asshurbanipal, who became king of Assyria in 668, defeated
Tirhakah in his first campaign ; Asshurbanipal also states of Tirhakah
(Rassam Cylinder, ii. 21 ; KB ii. p. 166 f.), il-lik limat mu-H-lu, his nighi-
fate came {upon him), which should mean that Tirhakah was not only defeated
at that time, but died. In that case the year of Tirhakah's succession is
694-693 ; it cannot have been earlier. Some Egyptologists, disregarding this
interpretation of the Assyrian inscription, and reckoning back 138 years, a
number obtained from calculations based on data given in the Egyptian
records (Breasted, Ancient Records, iv. 1026-1029) from the close of the
26th dynasty in 525 B.C., obtain 663 as the date of Psamtik i.'s accession and
Tirhakah's death ; this gives 689-688 as the date of Tirhakah's accession.
The years of accession of Tirhakah's immediate predecessors, Sabako and
Shabataka, the first two kings of the Ethiopian dynasty, cannot be so closely
determined by the inscriptions. But from an inscription that mentions year
3 of Shabataka, it appears that Shabataka's third year was near 700 B.C.
(Breasted, iv. 887 ; and cp. 452 n. c). Manetho assigns to Sabako 8, to
Shabataka 14 years — in all 22 years ; Syncellus 12 years to each of these
kings — in all 24 years. Thus the earliest date, that rests on any evidence, for
the beginning of the Ethiopian dynasty is 24 years before 694-693, i.e. 718-
717 ; Breasted's dates are 712 B.C. for Sabako, 700 for Shabataka.
Bokchoris, who immediately preceded Sabako, reigned at least 6 years,
exactly the period stated by Africanus (44 according to Syncellus).
72. The ultimate goal of the Assyrian advance resumed by
Tiglath-pileser iv. and his successors was first attained after the
Hfetime of Isaiah : after an apparently unsuccessful invasion of
Egypt in 676, Esarhaddon captured Memphis in 671, and
Assurbanipal took Thebes in 667.
ISAIAH AS PROPHET AND TEACHER Ixxxi
73. This rapid sketch may serve to make clear the political
conditions under which Isaiah lived, and to which not a little of
the form of his teaching is due. Briefly, Isaiah's public life
coincided with the first half of the period of 80 years from the
accession of Tiglath-pileser to the Assyrian conquest of Egypt,
during which the Assyrian advance westwards and supremacy in
the West was, though at first resisted, unchecked : conquered
districts never permanently recovered their independence, tribu-
tary states never permanently escaped the necessity of paying
tribute : for example, Damascus never recovered the indepen-
dence which it lost in 732, nor did the retreat of Sennacherib
release Judah from tribute.
§§ 74-89. Isaiah as Prophet and Teacher,
74. Isaiah appears from the first to have discerned the
meaning and issue of the new spirit and policy (§ 63) of Assyria,
and to have realised the fruitlessness of political combinations
against that power : he was certainly convinced of the wrongness
of Judah in taking any part in them. Against all such combina-
tions, of which there was no lack, he consistently set himself.
No one who instigated these combinations, whether as at one
time it was Merodach-baladan (721-709 B.C., and also 702 b.c.)
of Babylon (cp. ch. 39), or as at others one of the kings of
the Ethiopian dynasty which established its authority over Egypt
about 712 B.C. (§ 71), or, as it may have been earlier, one of the
Delta chieftains who divided authority in Egypt prior to 712, or,
as some think, the rulers of a region in Arabia called Mu§ur
(§ 69), counted against Assyria : they were one and all helpless
and useless (cp. ch. 20).
The only, yet at the same time an overwhelming, counter-
weight to Assyria was not political, nor human : it was the power
and purpose of Yahweh. Yahweh was using Assyria to achieve
His purpose (10^) : so long as Assyria carried out that purpose no
powers would avail against it : as soon as Assyria overstepped its
commission, it, too, must go down before the greater power of
Yahweh (10^"^'^). Not man, but God determines history — that
is the key-note to Isaiah's political action and advice; not by
clever alliances, but by watching for and quietly carrying out the
will of Yahweh is the true welfare of the state to be secured.
VOL. I. — f
Ixxxii INTRODUCTION
The advance of Assyria was, according to Isaiah, by the will of
Yahweh ; that advance would necessarily entail the withdrawal
of the Syro-Ephraimitish army from Jerusalem, therefore let
Ahaz and his people put away their fear of Syria and Ephraim
(ch. 7), nor pay Assyria to do what it will assuredly do, unpaid by
them : such seems to have been Isaiah's advice in 735, and if
so it included a condemnation of Ahaz in becoming voluntarily,
and while as yet there was no need, a tributary to Assyria, in
seeking by political action instead of reliance on Yahweh to
escape the attack of the combined forces of Ephraim and
Damascus. But, once the step had been taken, Isaiah judged
it to be the will of Yahweh that Judah should remain tributary,
and certainly that it should not attempt to escape that tribute by
yielding to the invitations, whether of Egypt, or Babylon, or
its neighbours in Palestine, to revolt. Finally, though it was
the will of Yahweh that Assyria should punish not only Ephraim
but Judah too, it was (if we may trust the popular biographical
stories of the prophet in chs. 36-39) the will of Yahweh, as Isaiah
read it, that Jerusalem should not be taken by Sennacherib ;
consequently in 701 he is as confident that the Assyrians will
not capture Jerusalem as he had been in 735 that the Syro-
Ephraimitish army would not do so ; and he counsels Hezekiah
accordingly. But though on the one occasion he was con-
vinced that Ra§on, and on the other that Sennacherib, would
not capture Jerusalem, it is quite another question whether he
ever abandoned his belief that the sin of Judah would lead
Yahweh to destroy His people and their land (§§ 85-87).
75. In 735, Isaiah appears to have appraised at its true worth
the condition of Ephraim and Syria, and in 701 (and ? 711) the
promises of Egypt. Whether his diagnosis of the political situa-
tion was at other times and in all respects equally correct, or his
policy of non-intervention always politically sound, is a secondary
question. And not only is it a secondary question ; it may, if
it is not kept in its place, very seriously obscure what is of
primary significance in the life and character of Isaiah. Isaiah
is of " the goodly fellowship of the prophets " ; and consequently
how far he secured the safety of the Jewish state at the time,
and so secured its continued existence for another century, is of
little moment ; what is all-important to determine, so far as we
can, is his faithfulness and fruitfulness as a teacher sent from
\
ISAIAH AS PROPHET AND TEACHER Ixxxiii
God : what had he himself learned from God, what did he teach
his own age, and what through it has he contributed to man's
increasing knowledge and consciousness of God ?
76. These questions can be answered up to a point; but,
owing to the uncertainty that hangs over many questions of the
literary origin of much of Is 1-39 (§§ 8-43), they cannot with
advantage be pursued into the detail that has sometimes been
attempted. Here, at all events, no fresh elaborate attempt will
be made to trace development in Isaiah's conceptions and
teaching, to bring to light conflicting conceptions in his view
of the future, for example, or in his judgment of Assyria, and
then to determine the chronological sequence of the changes.
All the more elaborate structures of Isaiah's " theology " rest of / / '
necessity on shifting and insecure foundations ; even if it were * i
certain, and it is not, that passages such as ii^*^ 9^'^ 32^"* were ^[
the work of Isaiah at all, it is altogether uncertain at wnat period jf X
of his life he composed them, and how he came by, or how he
modified, his conceptions of a Messiah.*
77. If there is one passage in which, above all others, we may
feel certain that Isaiah speaks to us in his own words, it is ch. 6 ;
and that chapter, in spite, if not also in some measure in virtue
of its brevity, clearly reveals to us a personality of great spiritual
depth and moral power. And this revelation, though in that
case the name of the person revealed would be unknown, would
remain, even if any one cared to question Isaiah's authorship of
the chapter. As a matter of fact, there is no ground for raising
such a question, or for doubting that we owe that chapter and
much else in the Book of Isaiah to one and the same person.
But, in attempting a synthesis of Isaiah's character and teaching,
it will be well to start from, and at every possible point to return
to, this record. We are not at liberty to affirm that nothing that
* For theories of changing expectations of the future attributed to Isaiah,
see, e.g.^ B. Duhm, Die Theologie dkr Propheten (1875), pp. 158-168 (in
some respects modified in his Comm., 1892) ; H. Guthe, Das Zukunftsbild
des Jesaia (1885), a theory withdrawn in Jesaia {Religionsgeschichtliche Volks-
bucher), 1907 ; F. Giesebrecht, Beitrdge zur Jesaiakritik (1890), pp. 76-84;
H. Hackmann, Die Zukunftserwartung des Jesaia (1893). Cp. also G. A.
Smith, DB ii. 489-491, and also in the Review of Theology and Philosophy,
1907 (July), pp. 2 ff., where, inter alia^ the reason of Guthe's modification of
his earlier complex theory is criticised. See also Exp., 1904, pp. 330-342.
On Isaiah's attitude towards Assyria, see F. Wilke's/waw u. Assur, 1905.
Ixxxiv INTRODUCTION
finds no expression here was ever elsewhere expressed by Isaiah ;
but the more clearly whatever else claims to be Isaiah's can be
related to this chapter, the more confident may we feel that the
claim is good.
78. Isaiah, though a prophet and a pioneer in religious ex-
perience and the apprehension of religious truth, was none the
less, and indeed necessarily and naturally, the child of his people's
past, the inheritor of their beliefs and experience. To him, as
to them, Sion had been pre-eminently the place of Yahweh's
earthly abode (8^^ ; cp. 8^ n.) from the time that David, the
chosen of Yahweh, had encamped there (29^), and by Yahweh's
power, then and there manifested, had wrested it from the
Jebusites (2 S 5*'^^ 6).* But the hereditary belief of childhood
became the conviction begotten of personal experience ; it was
in Sion that Isaiah himself saw with his own eyes Yahweh seated
on His throne in royal state (6^^-). Again, to Isaiah, as to his
countrymen, the people of Israel, both (81^) Judah and the tribes
of the now separate Northern kingdom, were connected by special
and peculiar ties with Yahweh ; they were Yahweh's family (i^),
Yahweh's people (i^), compared with whom others were aliens
(i''); they were His treasure and carefully tended possession
(51-''). And so in turn Yahweh was peculiarly the possession of
Israel : the people recognised the existence of gods of other
nations as well of their own, and, when necessary, distinguished
Yahweh by the term God of Israel (cp. e.g. Jg ii2i-24)- Isaiah's
favourite term for Yahweh is a modification of this older term,
and it retains (though with a difference (see below)) the sugges-
tion of Yahweh's special relation to Israel : Yahweh is the Holy
One of Israel. It is unnecessary to attempt any complete cata-
logue of popular beliefs, such as that in Seraphim (6^), which find
expression in Isaiah. The two that have been more particularly
referred to are important for this reason : though Isaiah rises
above the old limited thought of God which confined Him in the
range of His presence and the extent of His authority, he retains
what there was of permanent value in the belief in the local
manifestation of deity and His connection with a single people ;
a more exalted conception of God did not rob Isaiah of the great
intensity of the limited popular belief; God does not cease to be
* These passages are derived from a Jewish work probably already ancient
in the time of Isaiah, and familiar to him.
ISAIAH AS PROPHET AND TEACHER Ixxxv
near because He is also afar off (lo^n.); nor, again, because
He is God of all, does Yahweh cease to claim the special service
of a nation or an individual ; nor, because His glory fills the i
whole world, does He cease to be intensely personal, commun- ,
ing as a person with His servants the prophets, and still therefore '
best described in that anthropomorphic and anthropopathic lan-
guage which had its roots in those more limited religious beliefs,
in which the personal qualities of a god, and the devotion of his
worshippers to him, were accentuated by his relations or conflicts
with other and similar deities.
79. But Isaiah is not only the child of his people, he is the
child also of the new prophetic movement which began while he
was still a boy (§ 58). There is no direct allusion, it is true, in
any of Isaiah's prophecies to either Amos or Hosea, and not
very much that can be said to be unmistakably due to either of
these two older prophets ; but there is too much resemblance in
the fundamental positions of all three prophets for it to be
probable that, in a small country, no knowledge of the earlier
passed to and influenced the later. Only this must be added :
Isaiah, though, unlike Amos (7^*), he did not refuse the title ]
prophet (8^), was no prophet of the school ; he did not repeat,
merely because he approved, what he had heard about Amos'
preaching at Bethel, or what he had read in some fly-sheet
containing the substance of Hosea's teaching. It is probable
enough that he was familiar with what Amos had taught and
Hosea was teaching before the crucial day in the year of Uzziah's
death ; but he first began to say with power the same things, or
to treat of similar themes, after that day on which he saw Yahweh,
and heard and obeyed His call to service (ch. 6). Even before his
call, as we may well believe, there had been added, in the mind
of Isaiah, to the old and limited conceptions which he had
received in childhood from his natural kinsmen or ordinary
acquaintance, some of the new and wider conceptions of spiritual
kinsmen such as Amos and Hosea ; and all these conceptions,
popular and prophetic alike, were fused by his own personal
experience, as recorded in ch. 6, into a vital unity, which became
Yahweh's message through him to his people.
80. The vision that showed Yahweh seated in §ion con-
vinced Isaiah also that the whole earth was the sphere of
Yahweh's action (6^) ; the sin of Israel (6^- ^^'), Yahweh's own
Ixxxvi INTRODUCTION
peculiar people, is seen as a blot in the world-enveloping blaze
of Yahweh's glory ; the weakness and meanness of man and of
all that man relies on for help, or looks up to as lofty and
majestic, is seen in heightened relief against the absolutely
unrivalled majesty and the inaccessible exaltation of Yahweh
^51-6 26-19 2 1 If.). Neither here nor elsewhere does Isaiah take
occasion to assert with precision, like the later Jewish prophet
(45^* ^^' 22)j that there is no God but Yahweh, or, like Muhammed,
that there is no God but the (one) God ; yet his conception of
Yahweh leaves no room for any other being of the same class
(cp. 2^^^-) ; the world that is full of Yahweh's glory has no room
> left in which to reflect the glory of any other God ; and if Assyria
is Yahweh's instrument (lo^^-), made merely to serve His pur-
pose, or, failing to do so, to be by Him destroyed, there is n6
place for any gods of Assyria to control and guide that nation.
The images, whether of Yahweh or of other gods, which abounded
in Judah (2^), and commanded the devotion of the people, are of
no real value and quite powerless to help (2^^ : cp. 2^ n.) ; and
the same is true of the spirits that were supposed to haunt trees
and gardens (i^^f- : cp. 17^®), and of the spirits whom the necro-
mancers consulted (8^^). But whether Isaiah denied all reality
I of existence to national gods other than Yahweh, or whether he
' assigned to them some subordinate position in Yahweh's world
government, we cannot determine with certainty. In this virtual
monotheism, Isaiah was anticipated by Amos. Into a fuller dis-
cussion of its origin and nature it is not possible to enter here.
But two things may be said: (i) this apprehension of the
greatness and uniqueness of Yahweh, carrying with it the total
disregard of, if not absolute disbelief in, the gods of other
nations, was the accompaniment not of national aggrandisement,
1 but of national decline ; it was the very men who perceived before-
hand the approaching doom of Israel and the destruction of its
existence as a nation who also believed and taught that Yahweh
so controlled the entire world that no room was left for any other
divine controllers ; and the fact that in the course of his ministry
the larger part of Yahweh's people perished or were exiled from
their land, and that the Northern kingdom ceased to be, never
led Isaiah to waver in his conviction that Yahweh alone was
exalted and great. In earlier times and to the great bulk of
\ Isaiah's contemporaries Israel seemed as necessary to Yahweh as
ISAIAH AS PROPHET AND TEACHER Ixxxvii
Yahweh was to Israel ; in Isaiah's thought Israel owed everything
to Yahweh (i^), and through Him alone could be; Yahweh, on the
other hand, was in no way dependent on Israel, but would rather
vindicate His greatness by Himself destroying His people since
they had turned away from Him, and become incurably sinful
and corrupt (6^*^* : cp. §§ 83-87). (2) But if the increased sense
of the greatness of the God of Israel, and the new sense of His
uniqueness which characterises the prophetic teaching in general
and Isaiah's in particular, was in no way the reflection of an
increase in the national strength and fame of Israel, so neither
was it the outcome of speculation on the fusion of peoples and
of a common principle lying behind all their deities. The new
prophetic conception of Yahweh is no abstraction from qualities
common to Yahweh the god of Israel, and Chemosh the god of
Moab, or the gods of the conquering Assyrians. And the
prophetic conception of Yahweh is as distinct and different from j
the monistic speculations which appear to have arisen in 1
Babylon, as it is from the old popular Hebrew religion. There
may be room to question the absoluteness, and certainly the
explicitness, of the monotheism of the prophets of the 8th
century ; there can be no doubt of the intensity with which they
apprehended Yahweh as a distinct and living personality. He is
to them not power, but person ; not the lowest common measure
of all known deities, but a personal God whose activity com-
prehends all that seemed to them worthy in the activity which
other nations had attributed to their several gods.
81. On one occasion Isaiah had been allowed to see Yahweh ;
but not every day, nor, so far as we know, ever again after the
first occasion, did Isaiah see Yahweh as he had seen Him then ;
yet what he had once seen he must have known to be always
there, though by no means there alone; the power that ruled
the world was Yahweh, and Yahweh dwelt in Jerusalem —
unseen (cp. 18*), unheard, unrecognised even or misunderstood,
and the might of His quiet working utterly unsuspected (8^ n.),
by those whose ears were heavy and whose eyes closed, and
whose heart was without understanding (6^^^- ^^'^^') ; and dwelling
there He was working out His plan, which would prove to be to
the confusion and destruction of those who, regardless of it and
reckless of what was not seen, formed plans of their own {$o^^- ^*),
associating themselves with and trusting in flesh and not spirit,
Ixxxvill INTRODUCTION
in what was human and not in what was divine (30' 3 1^*^: 8^2-15 .
ct. 28^^"^^). Isaiah is certain of Yahweh ; from him the quiet-
ness of His action, and the fact that He waits His time (18*),
does not conceal (ct. 5^^^-) the all-sufficient power and wisdom
that will carry through the line of action on which He has
decided. Yahweh is to him not only the Supreme Power in
the World, but also the consistent Purpose which works itself out
in human history, yet supreme power and consistent purpose in
a person ; " a power not ourselves that makes for righteousness "
would be a correct translation into abstract language of Isaiah's
thought, but certainly a translation and, moreover, a translation
which Isaiah could not and would not have made himself. To
Isaiah, Yahweh is as personal as the politicians of his day : he
can compare them : each has his plan ; but the plan of the
politicians is doomed to failure, because it has no power behind
it ; because it is not only unrelated to, but opposed to the wisdom
and power that reside in Yahweh, and are directed against
iniquity. Cp. 30^'^ 31^"^; also 5^1^- 2821^' and if, or in so far as,
the work of Isaiah, lo^^. 23 j^24. 26f. 22I1.
82. The consummation and manifestation of Yahweh's plan
was expected at a definite time, which Isaiah, as Amos before
him and many since his day, expected in the near, even the
immediate, future. Isaiah (2^-^^) follows Amos in using the old
popular phrase, "the day of Yahweh," with a meaning quite
opposed to that which the people generally put upon it ; * the
people expected on that day help from their national God, the
God of Israel, and consequent prosperity (Am 518-20^ • Amos and
Isaiah, to whom Yahweh was God of righteousness first and
God of Israel only second, and in so far as the national relation
was not inconsistent with the moral, expected on that day
disaster to Israel; Isaiah pictures it as manifesting the unique
exaltation of Yahweh, and convicting men of the uselessness of
all other sources of help but Him. He whom Isaiah called the
Holy One of Israel, unlike the God of Israel of the popular
thought, does not work necessarily, and under the present con-
ditions certainly does not work at all, for the prosperity of
* Gressmann argues that the conception of the Day of Yahweh as a day of
disaster for Israel was not a creation of the prophets, but that they only
ethicised a previously existing popular belief in a coming world-catastrophe
{hr. jud. Eschatologie, pp. 142 ff.).
ISAIAH AS PROPHET AND TEACHER Ixxxix
Israel ; He will manifest His holiness by securing righteousness
and destroying, if need be, the entire people of Israel in order to
secure this (5^® : cp. e.g. s^-^).
83. Yahweh was God controlling the whole world, and work-
ing out in the history of mankind a consistent plan that would
establish and secure righteousness : such was Isaiah's belief: how
does his favourite term for God, "the Holy One of Israel,"
stand related to it ? The term, as we have seen, is, in respect of
its national limitation, rooted in the old, popular, national
religion ; and so also, of course, is the first part of the term
intimately associated with early and even primitive religion.
"Holy" (K^lp) is a word which was originally, and in certain
connections remained to the end, completely destitute of moral
import {Numbers^ pp. 209-211); but just as Amos gave, or re-
stored to, the *' Day of Yahweh " a meaning which it had never
had, or had practically lost, in popular usage, and just as Rosea
charged with spiritual meaning the conception of the marriage
of the deity which in the popular religion was fouled with the
basest associations, so Isaiah, out of a term that was at best
ethically neutral and a definition that suggested national limita-
tion, created a phrase that served him well in expressing a
conception of Gk)d intensely moral and free from national limi-
tations. It has been acutely observed* that it was the very
emptiness in respect of ethical meaning of the term holy that
enabled Isaiah to charge it with his own deep ethical conception
of God. In itself it denotes not a particular personal quality,
but rather the essential nature of deity; whatever is god, or
related to, or set apart for the service of the gods, is holy; if,
therefore, the conception of god is unethical, or non-ethical, so
also are the associations of the term holy ; but if the conception
of God is ethical, so also are the associations of the term : "the
Holy God hath shown himself holy in righteousness" (5^^).
" Yahweh of Hosts " (and that which is related to Him) exhausts
for Isaiah the idea of holiness (6^) : there are for him no other
holy gods ; the Holy One of Israel is the God who formed and
revealed Himself to and guided Israel; He is also the One God
whose glory fills the world.
The Holy One of Israel is, then, not limited by needing
* Cp. e.g. W. R. Smith, Prophets^ ^ 225; Davidson, Ezekiel^ xxxixf. ;
Skinner, xlvi.
XC INTRODUCTION
Israel ; His glory shines apart from Israel. Nay more, the very
closeness of the relation between Yahweh and Israel can only
mean the more necessary and more immediate destruction of
Israel, if Israel is unholy, unfit through unrighteousness to be
associated with Yahweh.
84. And what constituted holiness in Israel? what were the
qualities or conditions that made the approach of Israel tolerable
to Yahweh or safe to Israel ? Not that they should come having
scrupulously observed laws of ceremonial cleanness, not that
they should come with hands full of presents of sacrificial
animals for Yahweh ; they showed zeal enough and to spare in
honouring Yahweh thus in accordance with ancient custom and
prescription (29^^) and ancient thought of what pleased Yahweh.
But the Holy One of Israel was indifferent to these things ; He
loathed hands stained with the blood of murder, however full of
sacrificial presents ; He desired justice which He did not find, not
sacrifice with which He was satiated (iii-i3 ^7j. it is not neces-
sary to conclude that Isaiah regarded sacrifice as positively
offensive and intolerable to God under all conditions, but he
regards it as something that Yahweh does not require, and that
in no way palliates the sii) of those who offer it ; Israel has gone
deep in rebellion against God, and the multiplication of sacrifices,
so far from being proof of renewed loyalty, merely affords fresh
evidence that the nation is without knowledge of Yahweh.
The conviction of the sin of Yahweh's people and the
destruction which it necessarily involved, in addition to the
vitalising and deepening of his conception of God, was the chief
result to Isaiah of his vision. But what more exactly did his
conviction involve ? With what view of the future of his nation
did Isaiah undertake his prophetic mission? Did he remain
constant to that view throughout? These questions have
received, and, till the literary origin of several passages can be
determined with greater certainty than at present, are likely to
receive, different answers. All that will be attempted here is to
bring out the salient ideas that must be duly weighed in attempt-
ing any answer, and to indicate some of the uncertainties.
85. That the Holy One of Israel being righteous cannot
tolerate unrighteousness, but will destroy the unrighteous, is a
fundamental conviction with Isaiah. But there certainly goes
along with this a belief in the grace and forgiveness of Yahweh,
ISAIAH AS PROPHET AND TEACHER XCl
Both these points are illustrated by the vision : feeling his sin
and uncleanness, Isaiah immediately awakes to the danger of
the sight which he has seen, the Holy presence in which he
stands ; " then cried I, Woe is me ! for I am undone : for I am a
man of unclean lips ... for it is the king, Yahweh of Hosts,
whom my eyes have seen " ; but with the awakened conscious-
ness of sin, and recognition of its offensiveness to the Holy
Yahweh of Hosts, comes immediately the sense of forgiveness ;
the seraph touches his unclean lips with the burning coal, and
assures him that his iniquity will pass away from him and his sin
be expiated. Freed from his sin, not by sacrifice or outward /
rite learned from men, but by the free grace of Yahweh meeting
him at once as he turns away in horror from his sin to Yahweh,
he is not exposed to the destructive reaction of Yahweh's
righteousness against sin.
But Isaiah associates with his danger not only his own
personal sin, but the sin of his people : " I am dwelling in the
midst of a people of unclean lips." It might have seemed a
natural sequel if Isaiah had received a commission to awaken
the people to a similar sense of Yahweh's presence in their
midst and of their sin, and, consequently, of the imminence of
destruction, unless they repented and received forgiveness. But
this is not the actual sequel in the vision : Yahweh, in the words
of the commission, tacitly accepts Isaiah's admission of the
people's sin ; He does not dwell on it, but only on the fact that
the people will, sinning on, remain blind to the consequences of
sin, and, therefore, suffer those consequences to the full : Israel
will perish, and the land of Israel will be desolated. And Israel,
the people who are to perish, must be understood as including
both houses of Israel, and certainly Judah ; the meaning of ch. 6
must not be blunted by limiting the people whose destruction
is determined to those of the Northern kingdom ; see n.
on 6®.
86. But the possibility of forgiveness and riddance from sin
which Isaiah had personally experienced, he assuredly did not
limit to himself; not in the vision itself, but in the name which
he gave his eldest son very shortly after his call (7^ n.), we find
this more directly implied, unless indeed, which is not very
likely, Shear-yashub is, as some have supposed, a name of purely
sinister meaning. Isaiah, then, anticipated that a remnant of
XCii INTRODUCTION
individuals, a small part of the whole of Israel, would return to
Yahweh, be forgiven, and become quit of their sin.
How then did these ideas ot the irremediable moral condition
of the people necessarily involving the destruction of the nation,
and of a Remnant that should return in penitence to Yahweh,
work themselves out in Isaiah's teaching?
87. The belief in the imminent and certain destruction of the
people is by no means limited to the narrative of the vision ;
it was expressed in the name given by Isaiah to his second son
Maher-shalal-hash-baz (8^ n.), and was implicit even in the name
of Shear-yashub — the remnant that returns is but the remnant of a
larger part that perishes ; and the same belief, clearly in relation to
Judah, is the theme, for example, of the parable of the Vineyard
(5^"^)j a^d again it is expressed in what is commonly understood
to be the latest of Isaiah's utterances, " Surely this iniquity shall
not be expiated for you till ye die," 22H So far as the Northern
kingdom is concerned, there is nothing to suggest that Isaiah
ever expected that more than a few individuals (17^) would
escape destruction : see 9^-10* + 526-29 17I-11 28^-*. On the other
hand, at times he certainly seems to have held that Judah would
survive at least the perils immediately threatening her j so at the
time of the Syro-Ephraimitish war (735 B.C.) he maintained
against the King and Court that Jerusalem had nothing to fear
from the invaders (7^"-^^); and, if we admit 37^^^'^^^ in 701 B.C.
Isaiah maintained that Sennacherib would not enter Jerusalem,
because Yahweh would defend it for His own sake and for
David's sake. It would be quite unsafe to press the reason
given in this narrative (which is not the work of Isaiah, but an
account based on popular tradition) for Isaiah's belief that Jeru-
salem would not fall to Sennacherib : if he held that belief, we
may more safely seek the reasons in lo^^- : the Assyrians were not
to capture Jerusalem, because their disregard of Yahweh's com-
mission must be punished by ill-success. But Isaiah's conviction,
after being justified by the event, may well have made a deep im-
pression on the popular mind : it may have formed the basis of
the popular stories that gathered round this period of his work,
while his own reasons for his conviction were forgotten and other
less welcome elements in his teaching passed out of the popular
mind; and this may account for the fact that Jeremiah's de-
fenders appeal not to Isaiah, but to Micah as an earlier prophet
ISAIAH AS PROPHET AND TEACHER xciii
who had predicted the fall of Jerusalem and yet been left
unmolested. A conviction of Isaiah that Jerusalem would not
fall on a particular occasion and under particular circumstances
went, all against the intention of the prophet, to strengthen the
popular dogma that on no occasion and under no circumstances
would Jerusalem fall, because Yahweh must defend His own.
Unless Isaiah changed the fundamental conviction that
underlies the narrative of the vision, he must have held through-
out that the only way to safety for Jerusalem lay in a return to
Yahweh and the establishment of righteousness. Certainly the
terms of Yahweh's commission in the vision do not hold out the
hope that Isaiah's preaching will bring about the repentance of
the people and the safety of the state ; but in spite of this a
conditional promise underlies some of the sayings of the prophet,
and other sayings which at least cannot be clearly shown to be
not his: see i^^ (and perhaps also i^8(n.)) 7* 30^*. But the
condition implicit in 7^ — If ye believe, ye shall be established —
was not fulfilled : Ahaz and his people did not " believe " : and
by this further disloyalty to Yahweh they drew destruction nearer,
not at the hands of the Syrians and Ephraimites, indeed, whom,
as the prophet warned them, they needlessly feared, but at the
hand of the Assyrians (S^^^). So later, while Isaiah insisted that
no harm would befall the city from Sennacherib, he may have
held, and apparently did (22") hold, that harm would befall it
from another quarter, unless they repented. Whether he
expected that the disaster would in this case be due to the direct
interposition of Yahweh we cannot say ; but it is altogether im-
probable that Isaiah believed that Assyria by its arrogance, and
consequent unfitness to be any longer Yahweh's instrument of
punishment, had left Yahweh without other means of punishing
and destroying His own sinful people.
88. Beyond the judgment, Isaiah looked to the establishment
of a new Sion where the corrupt and unjust judges and the faith-
less counsellors of the present would be replaced by just judges
and faithful counsellors, and the whole community would be
righteous and loyal to Yahweh (i^s) : cp. 281^-^8. Out of the
remnant would arise (cp. S^'^) a new state.
Yahweh does not need Israel, the actual sinful people ; nay.
His righteousness must destroy them : but it will also re-create
out of those who by their righteousness come out of the fire of
XCIV INTRODUCTION
judgment a new state — in Sion. The influence of his time and
people on Isaiah (§ 78) may still be seen ; it leads him to place
the new state in Sion ; but there is nothing here inconsistent with
the conviction that the Holy One of Israel, being resident in
Sion, must destroy the existing city and society."^
89. How far and in what way did Isaiah elaborate his concep-
tion of the life in Sion after the judgment ? The question turns
on the criticism of passages like 9^"^ ii^'^ ^o^^"^^ 32^^^ 33 ; the
view taken in the Commentary is that none of these passages can
be assigned with certainty to Isaiah, that several of them are for
various reasons more or less clearly not his work : under these
circumstances, reference should be made to the commentary on
the various passages for the more elaborate details of the future
which are to be found in them.
But a few general remarks may be made here :
(i) Though unquestionably Isaiah was in the first instance a
prophet of judgment, and his narrative of the vision contains no
word of promise, or any suggestion of a happier future and the
establishment of a righteous society beyond judgment, it would
be quite unreasonable, even if there were no evidence at all to
the contrary, such as i^^, to infer that his mind never dwelt on
the ideal which should be the very opposite of the present state.
With his conception of Yahweh, and especially of Yahweh's
work in history. His carefully-maturing plans, he could not well
have thought that Yahweh's work would be complete with the
destruction first of Israel and then of arrogant Assyria. Yahweh
looked for righteousness (5^) : but if, as assuredly He would do,
He destroyed the people whom He had chosen that they might
produce it, but to whom He had looked for it in vain. He would
renew His work of choice and construction till He obtained the
righteous society of His desire. Nothing could be more natural
than that the idea of a righteous state on earth should possess
Isaiah ; and if so, nothing again could be more natural than for
him to place it in Sion, where Yahweh dwelt (§§ 78, 88). And this
is precisely what he does in i2i-26^ where the picture of the ideal
state is most intimately and closely connected with the picture
and condemnation of the actual city. Unfortunately none of the
* It is probable that G. A. Smith (DB ii. 490) considerably overstates
Isaiah's conviction when he says, "There was no other way for a spiritual
community to exist in Isaiah's day except through the security of Jerusalem."
■
ISAIAH AS PROPHET AND TEACHER XCV
other passages that deal with this ideal future are thus inti-
mately connected with the condemnation of the present. This,
of course, is not proof that such passages are not the work of
Isaiah, but it does distinctly weaken the positive grounds for
holding that they are.
(2) Many of the passages in question are attached to pro-
phecies of judgment without being organically connected with
them. In these cases it would be difficult to believe that in one
and the same speech Isaiah drew alarming pictures of coming
disaster and bright pictures of coming glory, without in any way
marking or defining the relation between them. But again this
is not in itself necessary proof that the passages of promise are
not the work of Isaiah : the present arrangement may be due to
editors. At the same time, it is perhaps remarkable that 121-20
stands almost alone in organically connecting the two ideas.
(3) There were probably two sides to Isaiah's activity : he
spoke in public to the people, he delivered to the nation
Yahweh's message of national doom ; he also probably taught his
disciples (8^^ n.). There is nothing impossible in the view that
more elaborate pictures of the glorious future, though they formed
no part of his public teaching, were yet presented by him to his
disciples. At the same time it must b^ admitted that there is
nothing in most, if indeed in any of the passages in question,
that suggests this more limited audience.
(4) Though the mere fact that a passage implies the belief that
a glorious future awaits Judah or Sion, or again that Assyria, the
enemy of Judah, will be destroyed, is no evidence that the pass-
age cannot be the work of Isaiah (cp. (i)); and though it could
be shown that all the ideas contained in such passages are frag-
ments of a pre-prophetic eschatology, as Gressmann has argued, it
is anything but probable that Isaiah, out of patriotic sympathy,
was content to perpetuate the traditional eschatological matter
"without much troubling about the inner unity" (Gressmann,
p. 243) of his teaching. Patriotic sympathy of that kind, we
may be fairly sure, was as absent from Isaiah as later from Jere-
miah. Isaiah may have utilised such traditional eschatological
ideas ; but if so, we shall be safer in believing that he modified
them by the setting he gave them, and by the inner unity into which
he worked them with that message of judgment which he had
received in his vision In a word, if the more elaborate pictures
XCVl INTRODUCTION
of eschatological blessedness which stand in Is 1-39 are, any
of them, the work of Isaiah, they have reached us independently
of their original setting (cp. (3)). In another respect Gressmann
scarcely conceives the problem correctly. Those who have
argued against the genuineness of the eschatological passages
may too often have relied over much on the criterion of ideas ;
it may be, for example, that an allusion to a multiplicity of
nations receiving judgment before Jerusalem {e.g. 17^2-14. ^p.
pp. 307 f.) is not a conclusive proof that the passage which con-
tains it is later than the 8th century ; but Gressmann is himself
one-sided, even if less dangerously so, when he claims that the only
" legitimate criterion for so denying the genuineness (of a passage)
consists of the historical circumstances pre-supposed in it" ("als
einzig berechtigtes Kriterium, um die Echtheit zu leugnen, sind
nur die vorausgesetzten zeitgeschichtlichen Verhaltnisse anzu-
sehen"); and he is wrong in his conclusion that "so long as
these (historical circumstances pre-supposed) do not speak against
the original authorship of him in whose book the future hope
{Heilseschaiologie) is handed down, so long may the 'genuine-
ness' be maintained " ("so lange wird man die Echtheit aufrecht
erhalten diirfen ") : all that follows, in the case of the Book of
Isaiah at least, is this, that provided the historical pre-suppositions
are not inconsistent with the age of Isaiah, so long may the
genuineness of any particular passage remain an open question ;
the passage may be Isaiah's, or it may be the work of some writer
living in any age with which also the historical pre-suppositions
are not inconsistent (cp. § 43). For though the book bears the
name of Isaiah, considerable parts even of chs. 1-39 are by
general consent the work of later ages ; and, moreover, the edi-
torial processes through which the book has passed belong to
periods when eschatology was rife.* Generations subsequent
to Isaiah have played too large a part in the composition of the
Book of Isaiah for it to be more than one possibility among
several that a passage, the historical pre-suppositions of which
are vague, is Isaiah's. The possibilities in such cases must be
reduced in number, if at all, by other criteria.
*Cp. Th. L. W. van Ravensteyn, De Eenheid der eschatologischen Voorstel-
lingen in het Boek Jesaja (Utrecht, 1910), in which as against Gressmann it is
argued that the eschatology (as distinct from the prophetic elements) of all parts of
the Book of Isaiah belong to a single period, and that probably the 4th century.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES
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INTRODUCTION
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(or 715) Death of
Ahaz. Hezekiah
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41
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CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES
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of Nineveh by Medes *
(and Babylonians)
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Nebuchadnezzar, king of
Babylon
of Jewish Exile in Babylon
Median Empire overthrown
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1
Josiah's Reformation
Fall of Jerusalem
597> 586 Commencement
[Dates
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694
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682
671
668
667
625
621
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605
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586
549
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COMMENTARY.
**Quae si longa tibi videbitur, non mihi imputes, sed
Scripturae sanctae difficultati, praecipueque Isaiae prophetae,
qui tantis obscuritatibus involutus est, ut prae magnitudine
rei brevem explanationem putem, quae per se longa est.
Certe nos studiosis scribimus, et sanctam Scripturam scire
cupiencibus, non fastidiosis, et ad singula nauseantibus."
Jerome.
A COMMENTARY ON THE
BOOK OF ISAIAH.
'I. I. A title defining the subject and age of Isaiah's pro-
phecies. It served, in the first instance, perhaps, as a title of
chs. I-I2 only. It was prefixed, not by Isaiah, but by a post-
exilic editor. Isaiah, in accordance with the prominence given
by him to Jerusalem throughout his prophecies (i2iff. ^leff.
(4^-) io32ff- 22^*^* 28i''^- 29^^- 30^®*-), speaks of Jerusalem and
Judah (3^-^ 5^ 22^1: occasionally elsewhere, 2 K 24^^, Ezr 2^);
in the title, as in 2^ and, e.g.^ 2 K 18^^, 2 Ch 34^- ^ the order is
Judah and Jerusalem, A contemporary Jew would have had
no occasion to add to the list of kings the explanatory clause
kings of Judah (cp. Jer i^^-, Mic 2^) ; an editor looking back on
the monarchy as a vanished institution might well do so. It is
doubtful, too, whether Isaiah would have applied the term
vision to his collected prophecies (see below). The period of
Isaiah's prophetic activity may be correctly described, though
this is not certain (cp. 6^ n.), as beginning in the reign of Uzziah :
and the title is certainly correct in extending the period into the
reign of Hezekiah (cp. chs. 36-39) : but Judah and Jerusalefn
is an inadequate description of the scope of Isaiah's teaching,
still more of chs. 1-39 ; chs. 13-23 contain a series of oracles
directed against foreign nations; and even within chs. 1-12
at least one prophecy (9^-10*) is primarily concerned with
Ephraim.
The vision"] fitn signifies (i) a vision, then (2) the verbal
record of what is seen in vision, and also, perhaps, with a total
loss of the original sense of the word, (3) any revelation or
VOL. I. — I
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
prophetic discourse even though it has not been suggested by
vision. The word is used here with either the second or the
third of these meanings ; in illustration of these, cp. " the book
of the vision of Nahum," Nah i^; "the vision of Obadiah," i^;
" the matter ("I3nn) which Isaiah saw-in-vision " (ntn), Is 2^ ; " the
rest of the affairs of Hezekiah . . . behold they are written in
the vision of Isaiah," 2 Ch 32^2 ; " write the vision and inscribe
it on the tablets," Hab 2^. Certainly neither the verb ntn nor
the noun ptn is necessarily late, nor the belief that God revealed
things to some prophets by means of vision (cp. Nu 12^ 24** 1*,
I K 22i^-i^, Am 7-9, Jer i^i-^^^. Nevertheless, since actual
vision plays but little part in the recorded experience of Isaiah,
and when he does refer to such experiences (6^), he, like Amos,
uses the verb ns"), the use of fitn in this and similar titles
may be due to the later conception that the chief function of
prophecy was apocalyptic, that prophecy was a revelation of the
final stage of history: cp. e.g. Dn 8^ and Ben Sirach's (48^)
description of Isaiah n^nriN ntn miaa V\T\1. To the authors of
these titles the prophecies of Isaiah, Nahum, Obadiah may
have been, as they subsequently were to many generations of
Christian scholars, not so much or at all the teaching of these
prophets to their own age, but a record of events seen in vision
several centuries before they actually happened. Consequently,
vision not improbably retains here the second of the meanings
mentioned above. — l5aiaK\ the name means Yahweh has delivered^
or Yahweh is deliverance (cp. Ps. 29^ ; see phil. n.) : the prophet
is the only pre-exilic person of the name who is known ; but
several persons so named are mentioned in Chr. Ezr. Neh. and
also in the Assouan papyri (5th cent. B.C.). — Son of 'Amos] the
name 'Amos is otherwise unknown; but the root 'ama§, to be
mighty^ occurs in Amaziah — a fact which probably created,
without in the slightest justifying, a Rabbinic theory that Isaiah's
father and King Amaziah were brothers (cp. Pesikta d. Rab
Kahana, 117b). By a grosser blunder, resting on ignorance of
Hebrew, but assisted perhaps by the Rabbinic canon, that
where a prophet's father is mentioned the father himself was
a prophet, Isaiah's father (|*CK, ffi 'Aftws) was identified with the
prophet *Amos (DDV, ffi 'A/aws). m
liTyr'] so always throughout the book : in the title of the book •Tye'', see
ntrod. § 3. MX may be right in pointing "in;ytt': (cp. 'Hcrafas, ffi), and the
*^
I. 2-31 3
name may, as Del. maintains, consist of a 3rd pf. +i.T — a formation already
common in the 8th cent. {HPN 176 f. : cp. 192), cp. <rt6<rct Kuptos {Onom.
Cotslinianum, in Lag. Onom. 165*^) ; but since vv does not occur in the Kal
and the n. pr. rvv^^n actually occurs later, yc may be a noun, yet scarcely
a noun in the construct, so that the name means (Turrripla KvpLov, sa/us domini
(Jer. al. : see Lag. Otiom. 69', 173"*, 191*°), but rather predicative (cp. HPN
75 ff., 175 f.) — Yahweh is salvation : cp. in the inverse order yr'^K, where the
second element, in spite of MT pointing, is yr' rather than yr, and also VKyr»,
Lidzbarski, NSI. The original pronounciation may have been 'n;y^», like
i.Tp^n, XeXK(e)ias : cp. Origen's *l€(r<rta, and 'Iea(r(c)/ou in (J&, 2 Ch 26".
I. 2-31. — A Collection of Prophetic Poems,
This section stands between two titles (i^ 2^): and it is
natural to infer from this fact that the editor derived it from
another source than ch. 2 ff. : see Introd. § 29. Why the
editor, who can scarcely have been Isaiah himself, placed this
section first cannot be determined ; it has been suggested that
the reason may be found in its general character and "immediate
applicability to many other circumstances " of ancient, or later
(Ro 9^*), Jewish life (Di.). But, as a matter of fact, it did
not prove more widely applicable than other sections of the
book: 6-8^®, or even ch. 6 by itself, which on chronological
grounds should stand first, is also cited more frequently in the
NT.
It must also remain uncertain whether the editor found the
chapter circulating by itself, — a prophetic fly-sheet of about the
same size as the prophecy of Obadiah, — or himself arranged
passages drawn from some larger collection, or even from dif-
ferent sources. However this may be, the section is not a
single poem or prophetic oration : it consists of several distinct
poems or fragments. Most clearly distinct is vv. 21-26 (28) ; this is
a complete poem with well-marked rhythmical character, and
reflects a different historical situation from w.^-^*: in vv.*^-^^
judgment is still to come ; in vv.*^*^ it is in process of fulfilment.
Since there is no indication that these vv. have been interpolated,
the chapter immediately falls into at least three independent
sections— vv. 2-20, 21-26(28)^ 27(29).3i. But of these sections the first
is scarcely a unity; the fresh start in v.^^ suggests, and the
contents, if not also the rhythm, favour, the conclusion that
vv. 18-20 are an independent saying or sayings. Whether even
vv.2-17 are a single poem is uncertain.
4 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Koppe distinguished as separate poems or fragments vv.''* (time of AliaJt)
and vv. ^'^'^ (time of riezekiah) ; Lagarde (Semih'ca, i. if.) and Corn. (ZA TIV,
1884, pp. 86-88), VV.2'. 4-9. 10-17. Cheyne {Inlrod.), vv.^-^- «-»• i»-" (cp. Stade,
Gesch. i. 586 n. 2, 622).
But whether vv.^'^' be a unity or not, the difficulty of maintaining the
strict unity of the entire chapter has been increasingly felt since Koppe first
seriously raised the question. Some, however, still maintain that it is a
literary unity; for example, Di. says, "The chapter is just as little as
many others an oratorical unity or the accurate report of a speech actually
delivered : it is too rich in ideas and varied in contents for this, and the con-
nection both within vv.^'*"^^ and between these verses and vv.^"^ and ^^ is not
close enough. But in view of the relation of v.^" to v.', and the references
back from v.^ to vv." and ^^''j and from v.*^ to v.**, the literary unity of the
chapter cannot reasonably be denied : that is to say, we must see in it a
literary work composed by Isaiah himself, in which he has enriched a speech
delivered on some particular occasion with leading thoughts and turns from
other similar speeches delivered at not too widely separated periods, and
reduced the whole to a form used by earlier and later prophets (Hos 4^, Mic 6,
Ps 50) of a legal process between God and the people " (but see below,
p. 27). Cond. has recently maintained that his strophic theory proves
yy a-27 to be a single poem, which is unfortunate for the strophic theory.
If the chapter consists of different poems, questions of date,
so far as they can be answered, fall for consideration in connec-
tion with the several sections. Here it must suffice simply to
record the earlier view elaborately maintained as late as the
19th cent, by C. P. Caspari,* that the chapter belongs to the
reign of Uzziah and is earlier than ch. 6 ; and the wide diverg-
ence of judgment among other writers who have maintained the
unity of the chapter, the two main views being that it belongs to
the period of the Syro-Ephraimitish war in 735 (Ges., Del., Di.),
the other that it belongs to the time of Sennacherib's invasion
in 701 (Vitr., Eich., W. R. Smith). Many other theories are
referred to by Caspari (p. iff.).
So also the question of rhythm is dealt with in detail in the various
sections. For a different view from that which is taken below of the changes
of rhythm in this chapter, see Francis Brown, The Measurements of Hebreiv
Poetry^ mJBLit.y 1 890, 82-86, who finds w.^"* six- toned, vv.^'^" five-toned,
yy 21-28 six-toned, vv.^"*^ five-toned.
I. 2-17. — The sin of Yahweh^s people, their punishment and
mistaken sense of His requirements.
Rhythm and Parallelism. — Cp. Introd. "On Poetic forms." Within
vv.*'^' there is a marked difference between vv.^'^- ^^''- " and ^°'^^'' : balancing
* Beilriige zur Einleitung in das B. fes.y Berlin, 1848.
I
I. 2-17 5
rhythm is dominant in the first named verses, echoing rhythm (3 : 2) is dearly
to be recognised in vv.'°* "• ^^- (omitting ddtd) i*"- '*'• (omitting D3D) "»»• '"o-io^
^"'; the rest of vv."'''^''is more uncertain, partly at least owing to textual
corruption. Of the lines clearly 3 : 2 only vv.^^**' ^*^ show parallelism of sense
between their parts: but the entire periods 5 : 5 are parallel in vv.'**"'***^
15a. b . jj^us absence of parallelism, or parallelism only of longer periods, as
well as difference of rhythm, sharply distinguishes vv. '""'"' from vv.^"* and
16c. 17^
Where the balancing rhythm prevails, some diflcrence of length in the
lines may be observed :
(fl) Vv.2- ' consist of one tristich — 2 : 2 : 2, and three distichs 3 : 3, t.e. four
complete periods of six accents.
{6) Vv.*"' : most of the distichs are unmistakably 2 : 2, but v.***'' is 3 : 3
unless 'in is rhythmically independent (see p. 89) and }iyi33, one
accent: in MT it is two. Insert makkephs as follows: no^Sy (so
generally in MT), niyian in v."*, after K^ in v.', and perhaps in
rK-n(i)DnB' in v.' (see phil. n.). Lines irregularly of three accents
are v.'*, unless nriK be omitted : and vv.*'* unless v.*** '• » (2 : 3 : 2 in
1^, 2:3 in (JEr) is intrusive (see Comm.); '• omitted in the trans-
lation is probably a gloss (see Comm.).
(c) Vv.^*'' " : distichs 2 : 2.
(d) V.', if tsyos be omitted (ffi), consists of two distichs, 3:3 and 2:2
respectively ; i.e. it is like vv.''"^ in balancing rhythm. If tsyoa be
retained and taken with what follows, '*'• ^ is 3 : 2 and rhythmically
similar to vv.^***''* ; **•*• might perhaps with difficulty be read in the
same rhythm by inserting makkeph, uS'Tnin.
Strophes. — The translation will show that vv.^"* falls into four, or w.^'
into three, almost equal sense-divibions ; v.' is but half the length of any one
of them. Again, two sets of four lines of five accents are recognisable in
vv."' ^^ and ^"-^^t", and the intervening verses before they were amplified may
have been of the same length : then v.^* with its two lines stands by itself.
If the text of |^ were preferable to (K in v." (see above), it would be tempting
to see in vv.^"® and ^'^^^ two poems rhythmically different in character but each
divided into four equal strophes.
The marked difference in poetical form between vv.*** and
yv.io-16^ which has just been pointed out and is in some measure
indicated in the translation, makes the unity of vv.^-i^ uncertain.
But the thought of the two poems, if there are two poems here
rather than one, is not so different that either suffers much by
being read with the other, and in a consecutive translation of
vv.2-17 the relation of v.® can be more readily considered ; that
verse may be rhythmically, textually, and exegetically uncertain,
and may possibly be intrusive, but it cannot be rejected with
confidence.
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Israels unfilial conduct and its punishment.
2 Hear, O heaven,
And give ear, O earth !
For 'tis Yahweh hath spoken —
"Children have I reared and brought up^
But they have rebelled against me;
' An ox knoweth its owner.
And an ass it's master's manger;
Israel doth not know,
My people doth not consider.**
* Ah ! sinful nation,
People whose guilt is heavy,
Brood that doeth evil,
Children that deal corruptly —
Who have forsaken Yahweh,
Contemned the Holy One of Israel,
Are estranged (?) backward —
* Wherefore will ye yet be smitten,
(Wherefore) continue in your defection?
The whole head is sick,
And the whole heart diseased:
® From the sole of the foot to the very head
No soundness is in him ;
(But) bruises and contusions
And still bleeding wounds,
Not pressed out, nor bound up,
Nor softened with oil.
^ Your land is a desolation,
Your cities are burned with fire;
Your tilled land before you,
Aliens are devouring it ;
• And the daughter of Sion is left
Like a booth in a vineyard.
Like a night refuge in a cucumber-field,
Like a tower (?) for the watch (?).
• Had not Yahweh of Hosts
Left of us some that escaped,
Like Sodom had we become,
Gomorrah had we resembled.
I. a-17 7
Not Sacrifice I
^^ Hear the word of Yahweh, | ye chiefs of Sodom !
Give ear to the instruction of our God, | people of
Gomorrah !
11 What good to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? | saith
Yahweh.
I am satiated with burnt-offerings of rams | and fat of fed
beasts ;
And in the blood of bullocks and he-goats | I delight not.
12 When ye come to see my face, | who hath required this at
your hand 7
Trample my courts ^^ shall ye no more,
To bring gifts is vain.
Smoke (of sacrifice) is an abomination to me.
New moon and sabbath, convoking of convocations, I cannot (endure);
Fast and sacred seasons ^* your new moons and your set times my
soul hateth.
They have become a burden upon me, | I weary of carrying.
15 And when ye spread out your hands, | I will hide mine
eyes from you
Yea when ye make many prayers, | I do not listen.
Your hands are full of shed-blood : | ^^ wash youselves pure ;
Put away the evil of your doings | from before mine eyes.
But Justice,
!•" Cease to do evil,
1^ Learn to do well ;
Seek out the right,
Make the violent (?) keep straight (?) ;
Secure the right of the orphan,
Undertake the cause of the widow.
Heaven and earth are summoned to listen to Yahweh's charge
against His people : they have requited His fatherly care with
indifference and open rebellion (vv.^^*). Sufficient reason this
that blow after blow has fallen till Judah is covered with bruises
and wounds from head to foot (vv.^^^), that the land of Judah
8 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
has been desolated and its cities burned by a foreign army,
which now invests Jerusalem itself (vv.''^^-). Indeed, had not
Yahweh saved a few, Judah would have been wiped out of
existence as completely as Sodom and Gomorrah (v.^). But
even now in the beleaguered city — so we must understand the
transition if the poem is one — rulers and people alike utterly
misunderstand Yahweh : misfortune has at last awakened them
to their need of Him, but not to the nature of their sins, or of
His demands : they bring Him in abundance sacrifices which
He abhors, they are still indifferent to justice and humanity
which He requires — the very hands which they stretch out to
Him in prayer are stained with the blood of murder (vv.^**"^^).
Yahweh's word to them (v.^^), if they would really find Him, is :
Not sacrifice (vv.^^'^^), nor prayers unaccompanied by moral
change (^'''•), but justice !
The leading ideas of w.^-i^^ are {a) sin, {b) punishment,
{c) misunderstanding of what Yahweh demands, {d) what
Yahweh actually demands ; {a) and {b\ (c) and (d) are, each
pair taken separately, very natural sequences, but it is a question
whether (^), which is really an explication of (a), would not im-
mediately have followed (a) had all entered into the same poem.
The date of the poem, or at least of vv.^-s, is 701 b.c. ; see n. on
vJy where other less probable theories are cited. Nothing in
vv.2-1^ is inconsistent with the date 701, for it is only by a very
improbable interpretation that v.^ can be made to imply a present
state of national prosperity. On the other hand, nothing either in
vv.^' or vv.i^'i''' independently points to the year 701 ; and if any
of these verses are derived from different poems, their exact date
is uncertain : the ideas are such as Isaiah might have expressed
at almost any time of his life.
2a. b. C. Kxordium. — Since the prophet is about to utter
the words of none other than Yahweh, words which Yahweh kas
spoken to him, which he must not and cannot keep to himself
(cp. Am 3^^-, Jer 20^), heaven and earth (cp. Jer 2^2) aj-g called
upon to give audience ; cp. Dt 32^ for the same rhetorical appeal,
and for a similar one Mic 6^ ; for heaven and earth as witnesses,
cp. also Dt 4^*' 30^^ 32^9. — Hear . . . give ear] cp. 28^3 32^,
Gn 4^^ : this type of prelude may, as Du. suggests, have been
derived from popular poetry.
I. 2, 3 9
2d. e. 3. Yahweh charges Israel with unfilial con-
duct.— Yahweh's charge against His people is that in return
for His fatherly (Hos ii^-*) care (cp. Am 3^) they have broken
loose from Him and become rebels against His authority. —
Children] EV rightly renders D^33 thus, as in the phrase
"children of Israel," and % correctly interprets the word as
equivalent to "my people" (v.^). Less satisfactory is the
rendering sons;* for though, when the Hebrews spoke of
children they no doubt thought primarily of sons, the plural
D^33 is not limited in meaning to male children (see Gn 3^^,
Jos 17^), and note, even in the sing., a male child ("13? p) in
Jer 20^2. Where parallelism admits (it does not here) the use
of the terms, Yahweh's people may be described as His " sons "
and "daughters" (43®). — Brought up and reared] i.e. played
the part of a parent by them. For T\l in this sense, cp. 23*
4921 ^iis^ 2 K 10*, Hos 9^2; and for DDn, 23*, also the analogous
use in Ezk 31*: so ina in the Kal is used of the growth of the
infant (Gn 21^) or youth (Gn 2\^). Both verbs have also the
meaning to make greats powerful^ exalted', and the second by
many f and both by some % have been so understood here ; but
the two verbs should be rendered as synonyms (see phil. n.);
and both the parallel in 23* and the context here (see vv.^^-)
favour interpreting the ,line of Yahweh's parental care§ for
Israel, not of the pre-eminence of Israel among the nations, or
of the greatness of Israel in numbers and military power. Con-
sequently, there is no allusion to the prosperity of Judah, and
the case for assigning this passage to the same early period of
Isaiah's activity as 2^^- (Che. Introd. p. 2) falls to the ground.
In the simplest terms, without the pathetic details of Hosea's
picture of Yahweh training and tending His child (Hos ii^-,
esp. V.8), Isaiah places in contrast Yahweh's parental care which
had brought Israel to manhood, and Israel's unfilial conduct
in casting off the father's authority and disobeying the father's
commands. — They have rebelled against me] '3 VK^Q means to
revolt from one's ruler {e.g. i K 12^^, 2 K i^), to renounce
authority (cp. ^min h"^ IVK'S, Hos 8^) : here it is used of a child's
renunciation of a father's authority. A reference to idolatry,
* Ew., Di., Che., Du., Whitehouse, Box.
t fflr (C^wtra), U {exaliavt)^ Di., Du., Che., Marti, al.
t ]p., RVmarg. § AV, RV (text), Ges., Cond.
«l
lO COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
which has sometimes been suspected here, would be possible
(cp. Jer 2^- 2^ 3^^), but it is very far from certain ; other ways of
rebelling against Yahweh were to rely on Egypt or Assyria
(Hos 7^^), or to be unjust, inhumane ; cp. 59^^^- and the use of
the noun ytJ'Q in Am 5^2 . moreover, Am. chs. i. 2 are simply a
series of illustrations of inhumanity regarded in the light of
rebellion against Yahweh.
3. Israel has not only been an unfilial child of Yahweh, but
has shown himself less intelligent than the animals (cp. Jer 8^)
that form part of a household (Ex 20^^). Ox and ass find their
way to their stables ; but Israel cares nothing for Yahweh, nor
discerns that it owes everything to Him : cp. the thought of
Hos 2^^^^\ Dt 32^*^, where it is implied that Israel not only did
not recognise Yahweh, their true Baal or owner, as the giver of
harvest, but attributed the produce of Canaan to the ancient
Baals of the land. — Owner . . . master\ the first word ^'^\>)
denotes tov KTrjcrdfievov (ffi), one who has come into possession
of anything as, for example, by purchase (cp. Lv 25^*^, Zee 11^);
the second (bv^) is commonly used of the person to whom
property belongs (e.g. Ex 21^8, Jg 1922). — Israel] If vv.^ and ^
belong to the same poem, Israel is not the Northern kingdom,
but Judah : cp. ^"^ n. ^
4-9. Israel sinful and suffering. — Isaiah, like Amos in
3^-8, follows up the brief saying of Yahweh {w.^^- <*• ^) with speech ^
in his own person. 4. And first with a cry of threat and lamenta-
tion, Ak/ or JVoe/ (5^*^^ etc.), he emphasises by means of a
succession of short clauses the rebellious and unfilial conduct
of Israel, the nation^ people^ race, and children of Yahweh : they
are sinful^ heavily laden with guilty evil-doers (cp. 9^^ 312), and
of corrupt life (cp. Gn 6^2^ Zeph 3^, Ps 14^). — 4e. f. g. One at
least of the last three lines of v.* is probably not original, possibly
none of them are (Marti), though strophic regularity requires two
lines here, ffi omits the last line, and the previous one is
rhythmically suspicious. If the lines stood by themselves they
would probably, if not quite necessarily, imply idolatry (C);
but the remainder of the poem suggests that Isaiah had,
instead of idolatry, ethical offences in mind. To forsake
Yahweh often, though not invariably (Dt 282^), with writers
later than Isaiah, means specifically to abandon Him for another
God; see, e.g.^ Jg 2"^- lo^-^o, Dt 31^*, Jer i^' 2^^ 5^; and if
1
■
I. 3-6 II
vv.28f. below were originally connected with one another, the
same specific sense was intended there. To contemn (|*W) God
was to think little of His power, to distrust His capacity to
fulfil His promises or His threats (Nu 52* 12'^ 1411-28 x6M
Ps lo^'is y^io. 18J. and once (Dt 3120) it is associated with
serving other gods. The verb in the last line (see phil. n.) refers
to idolatry in Ezk 14*, and so do similar phrases in Ps 44I*
78*''. — The Holy One of Israel] Isaiah's favourite term for Yah-
weh : see Introduction. — 5a. b. The question put to the persons
addressed in ^- ^' '^ <*. — Why will the people invite fresh punish-
ment by renewing and continuing their sinful courses ? Judah
to Isaiah, as Israel to Amos (4*'^^), appears to have suffered
already often and severely. — Wherefore] the regular meaning of
nD"i>j;. Many modern interpreters* appeal to Job 38* and
render on what (part of the body) will ye yet be smitten^ seeing
that none is left which has not already been smitten : this
destroys the parallelism, and, as Cond. justly urges, it pro-
duces an "image assez froide," for the person who chastises
does not take pains to discover a spot on which no stroke has
yet fallen. — ( Wherefore) will ye continue in your defection] the
force of wherefore in the previous line is carried on into this,
and these two lines are, like their neighbours, parallel in sense —
liy being parallel in thought to 1D"'Din, and mo, defection, which
necessarily implies punishment, to \2T\. Generally the second
line is taken to be circumstantial (G-K. 156^; Or. § 163) or
relative — seeing that^ or ye that^ continue^ etc. The term defection
occurs also in 31^, Jer 281^, Dt 13*. The original sense of the
verb "no is to turn aside from one's course, from the straight
road (Dt 2^7, Jg 4I8 148) . then morally it means to turn aside^
whether from the right — from Yahweh, His commands, etc.
(Ex 32^, I S 1220) — or from the wrong Qob 28^8, Ps 341''); but,
used absolutely, the verb, like the noun here, has the sinister
sense — Ps 14^, Jer 523, Dt iii^ 171^; religiously it is the anti-
thesis of 7N or ny y\^ — how long will this people turn away from
Yahweh to their undoing, instead of returning to Him to be
healed ? Cp. Hos 61, Am 4^ ny DnnB^ xi^l . . . Ti^Dn.
5C. d. 6. The whole body politic is sick. In contrast with
v.***^ (plural vbs.), we have now one of those personifications
of the entire nation which are so frequent with Hebrew writers
* Ges., Ew., DL, Du., Che., Guthe, Marti, Whitehouse ; cp. "S super quo.
12
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
(cp. Numbers^ pp. 265 f., 370) : — Judah is a wounded man whose
bruises and sores, so recent that the blood still flows, receive
no attention : there is nought of soundness in him ; cp. particularly
Hos 5^^, " Ephraim perceived his sickness, and Judah his wound,"
and Hos 7^, where Ephraim is described as a man sapped of his
strength and grown grey without realising it. The injuries are
described by three terms : yvs, bruises^ produced by crushing
{j\2\ Dt 232), or smiting {^'2r\, Ca 5^, i K 20^^) : the term also
occurs in Job 9^'', Pr 27^^ (fig'X ^.nd, coupled as here with
mnn, in Ex 2i25, Gn 4^8, Pr 20^0 (^) f ; the remaining instances
of mnn are 53^ Ps 38^ (festering stripes) : the third term n30 is
of wide meaning (cp. nan), but it includes open, bleeding wounds
(i K 22^5), and it is such that are here pictured — they are n^"il3,
moist^ juicy (Jg 15^'' : cp. ,c^), i.e. still bleeding. These wounds
have not been pressed out to purify them from purulent matter,
nor bound up with bandages, nor softened and the pain of them
assuaged by the pouring in of oil (cp. Jer. 8^2, Lk lo^*).
7. 8. The figurative (vv.^^-<^) is followed by a literal
description of the desperate state of Judah : the whole country
lies desolated by the ravages of war, the cities have been burnt
out, and, at the moment, before the very eyes of the inhabitants
of Jerusalem, an army of foreigners is encamped and supporting
itself on the produce of the fields. The capital, indeed, still
stands, but insecure as the slight structures made for their
refuge by those working in the fields, too far away from their
homes to return to them at night.
The only known circumstances that correspond to this description are
those of the year 701 B.C. Sennacherib in his account of his campaign of
that year writes : '* Hezekiah of Judah, who had not bowed himself under
the yoke, 46 of his fortified towns, fortresses, and small cities in their
neighbourhood innumerable, with casting down of battering-rams and assault
of siege-engines, with attack of infantry, of arrows ... I besieged, I
captured. . . . Himself, like a bird in a cage, in the midst of Jerusalem,
the city of his kingship, I shut up. Fortifications against him I erected, and
those coming forth from the gates of his city I turned back " (Taylor Cylinder,
iii. 11-17 and 20-23). "V.' describes what those shut up in the capital could
see, and is silent about the 200,000 Jews whom Sennacherib boasts of having
taken prisoners (from the other cities ; Taylor Cylinder, iii. 17-20) — probably
because they had as yet no knowledge of this" (Du.). The actual descrip-
tion of the Syro-Ephraimitish war (see on ch. 7)> even with the additional
details of 2 Ch 28, falls short of the present, but some [e.g. Di. ) infer from
the general character of ancient warfare that the circumstances of that war
I. 6-8
13
must have been such as to justify the terms in which Isaiah here speaks.
It has been questioned whether an army lai^ely composed of Israelites would
be called "aliens" (D'li). No siege of Jerusalem by Sargon, to which some
referred this description,* is recorded, and the hypothesis that there was
such a siege is now generally abandoned. f
Your tilled land before you] the fields or cultivated country
(riDIK, cp. Gn 3^^), within sight of those addressed, i.e. the besieged
in Jerusalem. — Aliens] the word means belonging to another class^
or circle (Nu i*^ n.), here, therefore, belonging to another race^
foreigners (cp. Jer 5^^, Ezk 28^, La 5^) : this would very naturally
describe either Assyrians or Syrians, but much less naturally an
army consisting equally of Syrians and Ephraimites, since the
latter were not D^T in the sense here intended. — Are devouring
ii\ for the idiom nD15< 7D^{, to eat the landy meaning to live on its
produce, see Gn 3^'^; for its use of an enemy living on the
produce of an invaded or conquered country, cp. Jer 8^*. The
enemy have reduced the country behind them to ruin by fire
and sword, and they have now closed in on Jerusalem and are
living on its immediate neighbourhood; the addition at this
point of the phrase, and {it is) a desolation like the overthrow
of . . . does not seem very suitable : it is, moreover, structurally
redundant. Probably the words are a gloss \ on the word
desolation at the beginning of the verse, meaning your land is a
desolation — and that a desolation like the overthrow of. . . .
Grammatically, the clause, an overthrow of aliens (f^ffi), may
mean either such an overthrow as barbarians customarily bring
about, or such an overthrow as customarily befalls barbarians
(cp. Del.) ; but neither meaning is very probable. It is far more
probable that D''"»T, aliens^ has replaced ono, Sodom ; § everywhere
else the word overthrow (nasriD) refers to the overthrow of
Sodom and Gomorrah (13^^ Dt 29^2, Am 4", Jer 49^^ 50*^). —
8. Daughter of Sioti] Cities with their inhabitants are poetically
regarded as a woman; cp. e.g. "daughter of Babylon," 47I;
" virgin Israel," Am 5^. Sion here is used widely of the entire
city, not of the South-Eastern Hill alone (cp. G. A. Smith,
Jerusalem^ i. 269). — A booth] for the slightness and insecurity of
the n3D, cp. Job 27^^; and of the night-refuge (njfc). Is 2420,
* Cp. Che. /Y, Introd. notes to x. 5-xii. 6.
t Che. Introd. p. 3f. (with references); cp. Driver, Isaiah (188$), p. loi.
X So Du., Che., Marti, Cond. al.
§ So, e.g., Ew., Che., Du., Mar.
14 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
" It shall shake to and fro like a night-refuge." For a picture
of a modern structure of this kind, see SBOT^ p. 162. — Like
a tower for tjie wafcJi] No entirely satisfactory rendering of
mi^3 T'ya can be suggested; like a tower for the watch (cp.
D'^lXli 7liD, 2 K 17^) fits in well with the two preceding lines,
but n^y, meaning alarm-post^ or to7ver (? cp. "i^V: Kon.), and
miVJ, watch, are both uncertain. Besieged, too, is a questionable
rendering of miV3 ; and it is an objection both to as a besieged
city (RV) and like a ^forsaken' (naity, cp. 66^^ 62^2) ^(y
(Che. SBOT\ that Sion not merely resembles, but actually is,
a besieged, or forsaken, city. A well-guarded city would be the
safest rendering, and yet it can only really express the meaning
if Haupt (see SBOT) is right in treating the clause as a gloss ;
and this is improbable, for the structure of the poem seems to
require the line. See also phil. n.
9. Had not Yahweh allowed some of the Jews to escape, the
nation would have perished as completely as the " cities of the
plain" (Gn iq^s, Dt 29^2^. According to v.^, Jerusalem stands
entire, though isolated now and insecure: the escaped of this
V. ought to be, then, the besieged inhabitants of Jerusalem, and
the conviction lying behind the words that in Jerusalem they are
safe, that the capital is inviolable : and yet v.* suggests anything
but the invincibility of Jerusalem; and for this reason Marti
suspects the originality of v.* in its present position. On the
difference in rhythm and strophic length that distinguishes v.^
from vv.**^, see above. — Some that escaped\ RV inadequately
renders remnant ; T»"iB^, from a root meaning to take fright, run
away (cp. Ar. sarada), is one who survives from defeat, one
who escapes', cp. e.g. Jer 31^, Nu 24^*. In MT, though not in
ffirS»H, the survivors are said to be like a little, i.e. very few : cp.
yj-i Dyes, "like a little moment," 2620. J^ also admits of the
word DyJOD being taken with the next clause — almost had we
become (cp. Gn 26^^; BDB 590a). But this fails to do justice
to the obvious thought of v.®, for if Yahweh had not allowed
some to escape, Judah would have been clean wiped out, and, <
therefore, not almost, but quite like Sodom. I
2. 'nDDm 'nVnj] the simple (not consecutive) waw coupling two synonymous
terms (Dr. § 131 f.)- Ki- rightly remarks, "Two words of like meaning are
used for the sake of emphasis, but the sense of both is one and the same " ;
he is wrong, however (see above), in the meaning which he gives to both —
□y Va SyD n^nDom oniN ^ih-yx '3. — oni] but they ; the emphasis implied by the
I. 9 AND I. 2-6 15
use of the separate pronoun is in such cases as this best expressed by rendering
]y due, instead of and; cp. Gn 42^, and further, Dr. § 160, Ohs. (p. 201). —
3. onx] sere for bateph seghol : G-K. 84a, ^. «y 03k, means /<? /ged up,
fatten, and DUK is iht feeding trough : cp. Job 39''. — v^ya] pluralis majesiatis ;
G-K. 1241. — yT K*? '?»!nB"] (& 'l<rpa^\ 5^ yue oi/k iyvto: the ace. pronoun
here (and in the next clause) is an interpretation, not a variant. The
objects in Hebrew are left to be supplied in thought: cp. 6'. — "oy] some 30
MSS and also dSc&'B read 'Dyi — a mistaken assimilation to the previous
lines. — 4. in] may be followed by the 3rd pers. as in 5^^^ 10" 17^' and
often : see Kon. iii. 321a, d. But 'in is also followed by the 2nd pers. {e.g.
33* SSS J^"^ 47*)» ^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ sound, both here and in 5* by the 3rd
pers. (v.*, cf. * J^ ; dSc, 2nd pers.) passing over into the 2nd (v."*). — \\i! 122]
for this genitival cstr., see G-K. I28.;t; and for 1^1 = 159, Sta. § 202^. — yni
D'jriD] the two terms, whether in apposition or cstr. and gen. (Ron. 337^),
are co-extensive; cp. 65^®: hence not seedy i.e. descendants, of evil-doers,
but seedy i.e. race^ consisting of evil-doers \ (K, correctly, <nr4pna irovtipdv
(cp. €^5). It is possible that D'j;TD=Djno was originally yno, and that the
clause was symmetrical with its three fellows. — D'n'nrD] sc. oam (Gn 6^), or
something similar. — rnp nx . . . m.T nn] Marti finds the repeated prosaic nn
suspicious. — TinK nu] <& om. The punctuators treat nij as Niph. of tit, as
also, though in view of v.' doubtfully, in Ezk 14* ; the cstr. is then pregnant,
they are estranged (from Yahweh and gone) backward — a strange mixture of
two figures each in itself sufficient (Marti). So already U etbalienati sunt
retrorsum. The consonants may also be punctuated r\\i (cp. Ezk 14'), Niph.
of ^T^, but they have dedicated themselves backwards is no more probable.
t?r (cp. Sb) has KmnKS nm nnnOK— the same phrase that is used to render jidj
mnK in 50" ; whether % actually read 1J03 for r\n is doubtful, but this has been
suggested as the original reading by Marti : for nnx jd3, cp. Ps 40^* 70* and
references above. Since the poem is for the most part composed of distichs,
one (if not all) of the last three clauses of the v. seems superfluous : the
last being absent from (& has not unnaturally been suspected (Brown, Du.) ;
but rhythmically the clause Skib" vnp nx ij^kj, with three accents against the
prevailing two accent lines, is more doubtful ; it is also a less satisfactory
balance to .Tin'-nK i3ij; than ninK ihia. Haupt (SBOTy p. 109) attempts
to meet the case by transposing mo (emended to is'oin) iB'Din from v."
and making it parallel to mnw ni3.— 5. no Vy] Kit. no-ny? Possible, but
unnecessary. — tfKT Sd] with poet, omission of the art. : G-K. 127^. Hence
the whole head, not every head (RVmarg.), as if every individual Israelite
were physically sick and covered with actual sores. — '^n^] probably *? of the
product : cp. 2 Ch 21^*. — 6. dhd u j'k] (& has no equivalent for ono 12, but
it is a mistake when Marti says that (& omits the whole clause : the oike 6i
(& implies that they read pK ; and as without ono ^^2 the sentence (there is no
wound, etc. ) is impossible in the context, we must suppose that (& used a
text from which onD 13 had accidentally dropped out. The clause is not a gloss
from Ps 38^* ^ MT punctuates DhD — a strange nominal formation from taon,
on which see Kon. ii. 98 n. i. Better with Haupt, in SBOT{p. no), dfio,
there is nought of soundness. — ni] MT by accentuating on the penult, perhaps
intended to connect the form with mi (see Del.). Going back to the
1 6 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
consonants alone we may connect it with TiT, mr, or mt. Olsh. (p. 536)
treated it as pass. Kal (^^^5 ij)* froiw m (cp. G-K. 52^, 67m): we must
then suppose "ni is an otherwise unused modification of nns, io bind up^ with a
special technical sense (cp. Du., Kon. i. 328, 333f.)« Sta. (§ 415^) considers
ni to be Pual of mi ; but it is doubtful whether the sense required here could
naturally be derived from mi, to disperse^ scatter, winnow. BDB treats the
form as pass, of nn = 5 01 , J\,to cotnpress; cp. iTttin, Job 39^', and the ambiguous
forms in Is 59" {pressed under foot) and Jg 6^ {pressing, wringing out a
fleece). However the form be explained, the sense is reasonably well secured.
— naan . . . itrnn . . . ni] nDST (a transcriptional error for 133T?) could be
explained by G-K. 14&/, but the change of cstr. is extraordinary, and is not
satisfactorily explained by calling it an approximation to a chiasm (Del. ), or
by treating naan as impersonal cstr. (G-K. 144*) — and there has been no
softening with oil, or by the distance from the subject (cp. 35^, Jer 44'^'' ;
Kon. 3463). Marti, partly on the ground of the cstr., partly on the ground
that binding up should follow, not precede, the treatment with oil, deletes
'n vh^ n; n^ as a gloss on mum yss, which, when it came into the text, led to
] being prefixed to noan k^. Both objections could be met less drastically
by supposing that n'na nam originally followed it^nn kSi ni vh ; and, since
□no 13 J'N is not a gloss, the distichic structure would favour this alternative. —
7. VH msntyjif the line is of two accents, v^-msrw, or perhaps trK-ns-i.?' (cp. 64^"
9^ <&) : or omit B'K as a gloss. — nnK D''?3K] insert makkeph, or omit nnx. — d'^dn,
are (now) devouring'. Dr. § 135 (2). — n"j«} Ty] nw regularly means to watch,
guard (from danger) — hence a city guarded (from danger). The sense
besiege is but doubtfully supported by Ezk (i^"^, where the meaning may
rather be preserved, and Jer 4^*, where ffi suggests omx. The regular word for
to besiege is Sy 'sya, cp. e.g. 29' 2 K (?^ : hence Di. explains misj as the Niph.
part, of this vb. Du. and Marti treat mua as an infin. noun like ^V^v, rvs^zi'^,
miaa, meaning watch {Beobachtung). ^,
10-17. The futility of sacrifices. — With the formula,
Hear the word of Yahweh, a. fresh section, if not a fresh poem,
begins, and the change is marked by a change of rhythm (see
above, p. 4 f.). There has been too much sacrifice and too httle
justice — that is what has alienated Yahweh from Israel and led
Him to punish His people again and again (vv.^*^), and that is
why even now He takes no notice of their prayers (v.^^) so as
to rescue them.
This is one of the most notable statements of the common
standpoint of the prophets : that what He demands of those
who worship Him is not sacrifice, but justice and humanity.
Compare, for example, among those who preceded Isaiah,
Hos 6^-^ and Am 4* 521-25 ; and among those who followed him,
Mic 66-8, Jer f- 2if.^ jg 40I6.
I. 6-9 AND 10-17 17
Sacrifice and many of the forms of religion Israel shared with
the nations, and it is not the institution, but the repudiation, of
sacrifice that distinguishes the religion of Israel. Not, perhaps,
that the utterances of the prophets need be taken as a prohibi-
tion absolute of sacrifice (ct. 30^9) for their own time ; but cer-
tainly a non-sacrificial, not less than a monotheistic, religion was
the natural outcome of their teaching. Historically, the unessen-
tial character of sacrifice in the higher development of Hebrew
religion is shown by the continuance of the religion without
sacrifice during the first Exile and, subsequently, both in Judaism,
after the fall of the Temple, and in Christianity. Prior to the
Exile the practical outcome of prophetic teaching did not extend
to the suppression of sacrifice, but only to its purification and
centralisation (Deuteronomy : the reforms of Josiah) ; but the
emphasis laid by the prophets on the essentially ethical nature of
Yahweh and of His demands upon men (cp. Mic 6^-^) enabled
the nation not only to survive the Exile, but as a religious com-
munity to emerge from it even stronger.
10. Under the suggestive and caustic titles cAt'e/s of Sodom,
people of Gomorrahy Isaiah addresses the prophets of Jerusalem
and Judah, and especially their leaders, whom he elsewhere re-
gards as responsible for the moral condition of the people (v.^s).
" V.^<> is most closely connected with v.^, for the address to the
chiefs of Sodom, etc., would be unintelligible without v.^ ; even
if the persons intended could be conjectured, it would remain
obscure why the people of Jerusalem are so termed. This, to be
sure, does not exclude the possibility that w.'^^^' were not spoken
in the same breath with vv.^-^. . . . Jerusalem is compared with
Sodom and Gomorrah in the first instance because of their
almost identical fate ; whether also on account of the similarity
of their moral state could only be decided if it were known
what Isaiah understood 'the cry of Sodom' (Gn iS^*^) to mean :
if he had Gn 19 in mind, a moral comparison would have
implied great exaggeration" (Du.). This is probably right if
the connection is due to Isaiah, and not, as some think, to a
later editor, who brought together two independent poems on
account of the verbal resemblances in w.* and ^*', or supplied
V.® as a link between vv.^*^ and ^®'^^. Certainly the fate (13^^,
Am 41**, Jer 20^^ 49^^, Zeph 2*) of Sodom and Gomorrah is
more frequently alluded to in the OT than their sins (La 4^,
VOL. I. — 2
1 8 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
A.
Dt 32^2^ Ezk i6i6ff-), though both are naturally enough some
times thought of at the same time (Dt 29^2), as is so frequently
the case with the references in the Koran to Ad and Thamud.
On the other hand, if Sodom typifies for Isaiah the same sins —
pride, fullness of bread, prosperous ease, failure to help the poor
and the needy — as it did a century and more later for Ezekiel
(16**), the comparison of the moral state of Judah with Gomorrah
would have been quite in harmony with his general point of
view, and sufficiently obvious for him to begin an address to a
crowd assembled in the temple courts (w.^^-^^j^ which numbered
among it persons of position, with the epithets cAie/s of Sodom^
people oj Gomorrah. — Chiefs] the word '^^'^ is a synonym of K^KT in
the sense of leader-, cp. Mic 3^- * (in parallelism with B^«"i), Jg 1 1^-
{=K'K1, vv.8- 9) 11 (coupled with t^Ni). In Jg 1 1«- ", Jos lo^* (JE),
Dn 11^8 the word is used of a leader in war: in Is 3^^ 22^,
Mic 3^*', Pr 6''t (a leader of the ants) it is used more generally ;
in Pr 25^* pvp is corrupt. In Hebrew the word appears to
have retained less of the apparently original meaning decide
than has the Arabic Kadi. Chiefs of the people of Yahweh
ought to make it their aim to keep things right in the State
(Mic 3^); but, since Isaiah shares with Micah (3^) the view
that their aim is just the opposite, he addresses them not as I
chiefs of Yahweh's people, but as chiefs of Sodom ; so also the
people misled by them are worthily termed people of Gomorrah.
Yet the prophet has for these misleading chiefs and misled
people a communication from Yahweh : they have gone astray
because they have misunderstood what Yahweh really cares
for. The doom of Sodom and Gomorrah will only become
actually theirs if they refuse to obey the word of God by His
prophet : cp. the survey of neglected prophetic monitions in the
Koran, Sura 7. — The instruction of our God] the word min in
passages such as these is very unsatisfactorily represented by law
(RV). Both in the sing, and the plural it is used in Ex.-Dt. and
elsewhere of laws properly so called ; but an earlier sense, which
was also retained even after the special sense of law had become
established, was instruction^ teachings direction^ in the first instance
probably a communication of the will of the god ; cp. the Assyr.
t^rtu^ if the term is derived from Babylon (KAT^, p. 606); or,
perhaps, m\ to cast lots, Jos 18^, if the word is of Hebrew origin.
The word is also used of the teaching given to a child by a parent,
I. 10-14 19
which may be in the form of command or law (cp. Pr 6**- 2^), or
of much wider scope; and, as the context suggests, in Pr 4^ i^,
it is the imparting of wisdom. The instruction of God is teach-
ing concerning the will and ways of God (2^), more especially as
communicated through prophets (8^ 30^: cp. La 2*, Job 22^^^
or priests (Hos 4^ Jer 2^ 18^^). — II. Why this constant bringing
of sacrifices? that is the question which Yahweh is repeatedly
putting to the people. How mistaken a proceeding, if it is
intended to please, not the people themselves (Am 4*), but
Yahweh I He has no good of sacrifices ; cp. Am 521^-, Jer 6^0,
Is i5^2f.. The first term DDTiat (v.^^*) is used widely of all slain
sacrifices, many of which went mainly to furnish forth a feast
for those who sacrificed; the two following lines refer to the
special sacrifices, the burnt-offerings and to the special parts
(Lv 3^^, cp. 2 S 2^^^' i4S2f.) Qf all sacrifices, to wit, the fat and the
blood (Lv 3^'^, cp. 2 S 7}^'^' 14^^^-), which were not consumed by
the people, but reserved entirely as holy to Yahweh — Failings]
except in 1 1* the word K^"ID is always used (Am 5^2, Ezk 39^^^ 2 S
6^^ I K i^"^^- 26) of beasts fattened for sacrifice ; in some cases
it is clear that these fatted beasts were eaten (apart from the
flesh and the blood) by the worshippers (so i K i). — Bullocks']
^ adds, and lambs; but the words are due to an annotator
who desired completeness; they are absent from (K, and the
tone and sense are rhythmically and rhetorically complete without
them.
12-14. As vocalised and accented by the Massoretes, the
Hebrew text yields a less severe utterance than ffi. Alike in J^
and ®r, v.^^ has implicitly denied that sacrifices form any essen-
tial part of the religion of Yahweh — What good are they to
Him ? At any rate, He has received them in superabundance :
and they give Him no pleasure. Then ffir (followed in the
translation above) continues : Certainly it is not God who has
asked man to bring sacrifices when they come to worship Him :
offerings are useless; the smoke ascending from them when
burnt on the altar is an absolute abomination to Him; the
sacred seasons with the preparatory fast and the accompanying
gluttonous (cp. 28^^) feasts are hateful to Him. Cp. Am 521-26,
Offence was probably given at a relatively early period by
this unqualified condemnation of religious worship; and by a
single slight change in the consonantal text, viz. the substitution
20 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
of jIN, iniquity^ for D1V,/flj-/ (so fflr), in v.^^, a milder interpretation
was made possible. According to MT, Yahweh repudiates not
the bringing of sacrifice, but the trampling of His courts, and
condemns not all offerings and sacred seasons, but vain offerings
and iniquitous festivals. This interpretation already appears in
.SSTF ; but though much older than the Massoretic punctuation,
it is in all probability not original. That the severity of such
a saying was softened, is far more probable than that it was
enhanced. There are reasons for thinking that the text of
these verses has suffered enlargements or other changes (see
phil. n.) to which even €r gives no clue ; but these do not appear
to have affected the fundamental meaning of the passage.
12. To see my face\ i.e. to worship Me. The anthropo-
morphism implicit in the phrase, which is frequently used of
visiting, or being admitted to the presence of men (Gn 43^,
Ex 10^8, 2 K 25^^), has been obscured by the punctuators (see
phil. n.), hence EV to appear before me. A similar attempt to
soften down a phrase that implied the visibility of God is
seen in (&'s paraphrase of Ex 24^®: J^ there runs, "and they
saw the God of Israel," dSi "and they saw the place where
the God of Israel stood." — Wko hath required this ?] viz. offer-
ings (v.^i) — certainly not Yahweh. Isaiah criticises the law
and religious customs of his time with the same freedom as
Jeremiah (y^^^*), and, later, our Lord Himself (Mt 5). Even
the earliest law required that the Hebrews when they came " to
see Yahweh's face" should not come empty-handed (Ex 23^^
3420). — Trample my courts'] i.e. the courts of the Temple in
Jerusalem. The trampling may be that of the sacrificial
animals (v.^^) which the worshippers bring with them (cp. Ezk
26^^), or the irreverent entrance of the worshippers themselves
into the sacred precincts ; cp. the use of irarctv, (K's rendering
here, in Jer 11 2, and of KarairaT€Lv ( = DD-i 16*) in i Mac 3*5.61
4®®. The awe which fell upon Isaiah as he entered the temple-
precincts, the place of the Holy One of Israel (cp. ch. 6), makes
the careless familiarity with which others treated them peculiarly
offensive to him (cp. 288n.). — 13. Offerings'] the word nrUD
means etymologically, and frequently in Hebrew usage, presents^
gifts : it is here used with its widest sacrificial sense of any
offerings made to the deity, whether of vegetables or animals ;
cp. Gn 4^"^ J ffir (o-c/AtSoAts also 66^) gives it the specific sense of
I. 12, 13 21
cereal offering which it acquired later (P). — Sacrificial savours]
mop, later used {e.g. by P) of the fragrant smoke produced by
burning aromatic substances, originally (see phil. n.) meant the
smell of the burning flesh of sacrifices, and this is its meaning here.
The early Hebrews, in common with the Babylonians, thought
of the gods as delighting in these savoury smells; in the
Babylonian Flood story we read, "The gods smelt the savour,
the gods smelt the sweet savour; the gods gathered like flies
over the sacrificer " ; cp. in Heb. Gn 9^1, i S 26^^, and the sacri-
ficial term "savour of gratification" (EV, sweet savour) which
held its own to the latest times. The prophets with their more
spiritual conception of Yahweh repudiate the belief; the scent
of burnt flesh is not a pleasure, but an abomination to God
(cp. Am 5^^). — New moon and sabbatK\ for the coupling of these
two sacred days, cp. 2 K 4^8, Am 8^ ; for the religious observance
of the new moon, i S 20^^-, and see Benzinger, Arch. § 69. The
attitude of the successors of the prophets is in striking contrast
to Isaiah's: see 56** •, Jer 17210. (both post-exilic). — The calling
of assembly] or, as we may render so as to retain the etymological
connection of vb. and noun (fc<"ipD Nip), the convoking of convoca-
tions. If the clause is a part of the original text (see phil. n.), it
explains that what is particularly intolerable to Yahweh on the
sacred days is the meetings, or rather, the summoning of such
meetings, to which the Jews were probably called by the voice, as
are the Moslems to-day. In P (Ex 12, Lv 23, Nu 28 f. — 19 times
in all) KHp N"ipD, holy assembly^ is the technical term for the meet-
ing of the community on the Sabbath, the new moon, and other
sacred occasions ; and fc<"ip», assembly^ unqualified, both here and
in 4**, must have the same meaning. The only other occurrences
of tilpD are Neh 8^, Nu lo^, where the sense is entirely different.
— Fast and sacred season] so fflr, cp. Joel i^* 2^*^; f^ has the
milder, and therefore probably not the original, reading iniquity
aftd sacred gathering (see phil. n.) ; this would mean that God
does not tolerate sacred gatherings associated with iniquity;
cp. iniquity and teraphim^ i S 15^^. According to 6r, we have
another of the absolute statements that abound here: fasting
and sacred seasons are not demanded by Yahweh under any
circumstances : He cannot endure them. The fasting intended
is quite probably that fasting which was widely practised " as a
preparation for the sacramental eating of the holy flesh " (W. R,
22 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Smith, Rel, Sem.^ 413): the sacramental eating itself would be
intimately associated in Isaiah's mind with the second term —
mvy, cp. Am 521, 2 K io20-24. The precise force of niVV is not
clear. Except in Jer 9^ (2) j^ jg always used of something sacred
or religious (cp. 2 K lo^o hv^h TS'TiV it^'li^) ; but whether it is
a sacred gathering, as Jer 9^(2) and perhaps 2 K lo^^ would
suggest, or a sacred season, as the parallelism with an in Am 5^1,
and perhaps the remaining uses would rather suggest, is not
quite certain. In the laws (Dt 16^, Lv 23^6, Nu 29^^) it is re-
quired that the mvy shall be accompanied by abstinence from
work (cp. (& apyiav). In view of this taboo on work, which
may well be ancient, and the use of the word "Tivy in Jer 36^
Neh 6^0 and of "1W3 in i S 21^, Marti's suggestion is probable
that mvy meant a time during which men are under taboo.
Such gatherings or seasons occurred annually on the last day of
the Feast of Massoth (Dt 16^), and of Booths (Lv 2326, Nu 292^,
2 Ch 7^, Neh 8^^) ; they were also proclaimed when it seemed
specially necessary to appease Yahweh or seek His favour (Joel
J 14 215-17 and perhaps Am 521). — 14, Your new moons and your
set times\ perhaps a gloss on new moon and sabbath : see above.
The set times (D^yio) are seasons that recur in the course of the
year (Gn i^*), annual sacred days or times. — A burden"] the
noun (nntD), Dt i^^; the vb.. Job 37". It is a burden that rests
upon (isy) Yahweh, and which He has grown weary of carrying.
The bold anthropomorphism (J^SU) is euphemized by ffiST.
15 f. Prayers, too, though long and frequent (cp. Mt 6'^), when
offered by blood-stained evil-doers who persist in their wrong-
doing, are of no avail. It is significant that the absolute terms
in which the inefficacy of sacrifices and sacred seasons is
asserted is followed by a careful definition of the prayers
that are without effect. Not all prayers, but your prayers, are
useless ; not imto all who call upon Him does Yahweh turn a
deaf ear, but to those who pray without recognising the need for
amendment of life; even these murderers, and these violent and
oppressive men whom Isaiah addresses will find Yahweh ready
to hear if they cease from their evil ways, and instead of defraud-
ing and oppressing the weak — the widow and the orphans — see
that they get their rights. The prophet's teaching anticipates that
of our Lord in Mt 523^- ; Pr 28^ j 5^- ^9 may also be compared.
When ye spread out your hands] The gesture of prayer was
I. 14-17 23
to spread out the palm (t)3) of the hands (cp. Ex ^^'^- ^^ Ez 9*,
Job 11^^ Ps 4421, and (with t) Ps 1^^^). From the time that
Yahweh was thought to dwell in heaven, the hands were
stretched heavenwards (i K g^^-w^ 2 Mac 320). Cp. the varying
custom of the Greeks, "The suppliant stood with face and
hands upraised to heaven when he called upon the dwellers
therein. In addressing the deities of the sea, he might merely
stretch his arms towards the waters. And when the beings
addressed were those of the nether world, the suppliant would
stretch his hands downwards"; Gardner and Jevons, Greek
Antiquities J p. 223. The attitude was that more generally of
entreaty (65^, La i^^). — I will hide mine eyes from you] turn away
from and disregard you : cp. Pr 2827. Yahweh turns away His
eyes from hands red with shed blood. The blood (D^Dl) is not
the sacrificial blood of v.^^, which would be, as it is there, Dl
(G-K. 124 n.) ; nor is it simply blood as rendering ceremonially
unclean, so that Hector's plea {Iliad, vi. 268) that he cannot
pray " imbued with blood and dust," though cited here by Ges.,
is but a very partial parallel : it is blood (guiltily) shed ; cp. 4*,
Hos I* 4*, Gn 410^-.
16. Wash you^ make yourselves pure\ wash yourselves pure,
figuratively for what is stated literally in the next line. The
word wash is used ritually, but when so used the result is
ritual cleanness ("inD — e.g. Lv 14*). Here the result is moral
purity, righteousness ; nST is never used of ceremonial cleanness,
but of ethical purity: cp. Job 15* 25* (where it is parallel with
pIV to be righteous\ Ps 57^ Mic 6^^ (shall I be pure with wicked
balances and with a bag of deceitful weights?), Ps 73^* H9^ and
the use of the kindred root ^3T, especially in Job 8^ 9^0. — 16, 17.
Cease to do evily learn to do well] " an abstract paraphrase of the
highly concrete exhortations" (Che. SBOT, p. in), and there-
fore judged by Du., Che., Marti to be a gloss ; Du. also argues
that the clauses overload the metre ; yet the two clauses metri-
cally resemble the four that follow. Marti refers to Jer 4^2 7^ •
but the second of these passages serves as a parallel to the
present combination of the general and the particular. —
17b. C. d. e. Illustrations of the positive requirements of Yahweh
— the powerful must be kept within bounds, the rights of the
weak must be secured : cp. the denunciation of the opposite
conduct in lo^. — Seek out right] inquire what is demanded
24 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
by tDStJ'D, i.e. old established custom which rested on the will o
Yahweh as it had been declared of old by successive decisions ;
such customs were gathered together into a body of customs or
Judgments before the time of Isaiah, and one such collection has
come down to us (Ex 2ii^'). As our Lord selected (Mt 22^^^),
or approved (Lk lo^^ the selection, from the great bulk of the
later Jewish law, of two principles, love of God and love of man,
as a summary of the law of God, so Isaiah here selects (cp. Ex
2220f. 23^*^') the duty of maintaining even-handed justice between
the strong and the weak as the very essence of Yahweh's
demands. Cp. the somewhat fuller summary of a later writer
in Mic 6^ — Make the violent keep straight"] so, in spite of some
uncertainty, the clause may best be rendered ; see phil. n. The
versions agree in expressing a sense similar to U, subvenite
oppresso^ whence EV. — Secure the right of] or do justice tOy a
frequent sense of tDDtJ', cp. 6^8 11*, i S 24!^, Ps 43^ 72*.
9, iriKSJC mn«] for the breviloquence, cp. G-K. 125-^. — nntr] (& (xvipfxa,
V semen ; variants?— II. "h no"?] for this idiom, see Gn 27^, Am 5". — TDK']
frequentative impf. ; Dr. § 33.— 12. "Jfl rfK-j^] see G-K. 51/ for other
instances where MT assumes syncope of the n of Niph. inf. : and see Kon.
ii. pp. 312 f. for the use of the ace. of D'JS if the vb. were really Niph. But
the punctuation is due to scruples against the suggestion that man could see
God (Geiger, Urschrift, pp. 337 ff.). Point ':b n"ix-j^.— V.^* should end with
D3T (cp. (K), and nsn odt be carried over to ". In ^* punctuate KUf nhjtp
(cp. (ffir) instead of Nwnof?, and for pN read mx (with (ffir). Then " and "
stand thus :
«\v\ nnJD K'an is'oin K? nsn odt
"h K'n najnn fmep
'?DiN vh t NipD xip t ''^•'^ "J^n
TSJ nwts' foDnyiDi OD'ennf rxyn'^ dis
.tKB'J nx^i rrxh '^y vnf
The lines, it will be observed, are irregular. Marti by omitting the words
enclosed between t and in v.^^ D3TD reduces the passage to "tolerably regular "
lines of four accents (the rhythm of vv.^"^ but not of vv.'<*^ ^^ ^^^). Certainly
'di uyvix\ {youTf not necessarily all, new moons), which might well be a gloss
intended to mitigate the absoluteness of naB'i tnn and K^pi:> Kip, is (in spite
of the parallel in Ps 45°- *, Job 42' cited by Del. ) an awkward asyndeton ; but
the arguments in favour of the other omissions are far less substantial. Haupt
gains rhythmical regularity by omitting DD'nyiDi UTv^n and me'? "h]} vn (with
Marti) and also n^fn DDi, m!ij;i pK Vdik vh, "'vamHW. Though the rhythmical
irregularity is probably due to some and perhaps considerable textual corrup-
tion, no reconstruction in detail seems likely to command general assent. —
12. nxi] this, viz. the conduct just described; cp., for this use of nxi (fem.
G-K. 122^), Dt 32*, Jg 7", Ps 1 1 8^3 etc. The /ikt is clearly understood
1. 9-17 25
thus, and rightly, by (ffir ; but according to MT and the verse division nxi
points forward (cp. 27', Jer 9=®, i S 11') to "^^n om. — qdtd] t in such
phrases is not w^^wjar/Tj/ literal : cp. pr^ T2, Pr iS'^^ and, frequently, T3 nan,
/<? j/^a/& djy the hand of . In itself, therefore, this phrase does not exclude the
possibility of the cstr. in MT. A Hebrew would certainly not have said who
hath required D3'Sa"iD that ye should trample^ as Du.'s criticism would suggest.
— nsn DDn] in MT a permutative of r«i : grammatically possible, for rpa may
take as its obj. the simple ace. without S (Jer 26^). But according to (K dot
n^cn is the ace. of iB'Oin vh (v."), preceding its vb. like the ace. infin. in Gn
48". — iB'oin kS] the k^ of emphatic command : G-K. \o^o. — K'2n] in MT inf.
cstr. without ^ (G-K. \i^m) dependent on ^ID' ; but it is rather an inf. cstr.
constituting together with its ace. nniD the subj. of a sentence : cp. 7", i S
23^. — mop] the smell produced by aromatic substances is expressed in
P either by the full phrase d'DD mop (Ex 25* etc.) or by mop alone (Nu i6*^*-)'
By a natural extension of meaning mop came to mean also, alike in Heb.
(Lv 10") and Phoen. (see G. A. Cooke, NSI^ p. 126), the substance which
produced this smell. But etjrmolc^ically nap (nnp) has a much wider meaning :
note the sense of smoke in Heb. no'p (Gn 19^), Assyr. J^utru {i.e. nnp),
Aram. KnBip(=i«'y, Ps i8'), Jo (=*uip), to smoke (of a fire), and the develop-
ment from that meaning ofyo, aloe wood burnt for fumigation^ and juaS,
scent of flesh-meats roasted on live coals (cp. EBi. 2165 n. i). Hence, too,
the verbal forms in Heb. nop and Ttspn mean to bum so as to produce smoke :
so Am 4* (of leavened material), i S 2^' (of fat) ; and then they are used very
frequently without an object and sometimes in parallelism with a wide term
like nai (Hos 4^' 11", Is 6$''): i.e. nop or n*Bp.n and nni are general terms
alluding to different aspects of sacrifice — nai to the slaying of the victim, "^^
to the burning of the victim so as to produce a savour agreeable to the Deity.
In a similar wide sense is nnop used here and in Ps 66^ and nniop in Dt 33^°.
In view of the well-established pre-exilic use of the vb. it is quite unnecessary
to doubt, with Marti, whether Isaiah could have used the noun. — \ih . . . cnn
'\s\ pK ^31k] on the cstr. of MT, see Dr. § 197, Obs. 2. — Knpo vr\'^'\ (5U
felt the lack of the copula (see above) and supplied it — koX ijfiipav fxeydXrjp
(cp. Jn 7^), et festivitates alias. — ^3"ik vh] hy=able to endure^ only here and
Ps loi' (doubtful). But cp. also Hos 6", Job 42^. Perhaps DNt?^ has dropped
out; cp. Jer 44^^. — 14. Kb^ ^T\vhi\ cstr. as Jer 6^^ 9* 15' 20^: Hb} is instead
of the usual n«r ; G-K. 76b. (& renders paraphrastically oi)Kh-i dvijo-w rds
ifiaprlas bfuav ; KB'3 might, of course, va&dXi forgive, yet not naturally here after
the preceding clause, ffi also paraphrases nno by TrXfja-nov^. — 15. D2{fn9?']
G-K. 6of., 61*. The vocalised text assumes a use of the Piel for the more
common Kal in some other places also : see 65^, Jer 4'^, La i", Ps 143'. —
ikVd D'Dn Dan'] on the order, see Dr. § 208 (3).— 16. lai.n ijtnn] cp. G-K.
121^, h. — lim] as accented Hithp. of nai (G-K. 54^/) ; but perhaps rather
Niph. of 131 — ^laf.n. — j;n.n] infin. absolute as direct obj.: G-K. 113^; so 3'e\n
in v.". — 17. nsTK] nB'N means to go straight on (Pr 9" and, MT Piel, 4^*) ; the
Piel in 3^^ 9^"* to cause to go straight on (antithesis to nyn.n) ; whether it further
developed the meaning to keep within bounds, which would be very suitable
26 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
here, is uncertain ; but it is almost suggested by the association with pen —
make the violent, instead of breaking all bounds by ill-treatment of the weak,
keep straight. Punishment of the violent is not required by the context, and
Che.*s proposal n?: unnecessary. The versions probably connected ifffti with
i^N, nB-N, happiness^ and then rendered freely : (&. pijaaa-de, C5 Q-OJ^Io, Vg.
subveniie. — pon] the Versions give the word a passive sense : (& dSiKotjfievov,
S |V) wfc? ^ D'JNi, U oppresso. But the form Slop has in some cases
an active sense ; cp. P'ijpVj J^r 22^, jin^, Jer (P. The meaning must be inferred
from the association of {'Din with Wd in Ps 71^, and the root may be a by-form
of Don, to treat violently ^ rather than of fon, to be sour, sharp,
18-20. — Yahweh's Invitation,
The sajdngs between the opening line {4 accents) and the closing formula
are distichs consisting of long lines containing 4 or 5 accents each and parallel
in sense. Perhaps originally each line contained 5 accents (=3 + 2).
These distichs resemble some of those in vv.^°"^*, but are quite dissimilar to
those that follow in vv.^^"^^ where the lines are shorter (3 or 2) and the
parellelism is between lines unequal in length.
1^ Come, now, and let us reprove one another, saith Yahweh : —
Though your sins were like scarlet (robes), they might become
white like snow;
Though they were red like crimson, they might become
like wool.
^^ If ye be willing and obey, on the best of the land shall ye
feed,
20 But if ye refuse and rebel, on husks (?) shall ye feed —
For the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it.
Attempts have been made to find a connection between these
lines and vv.^-i^ "Jehovah has been addressing His people in
anger, but even in the exhortations of vv.^^- ^'^ His love had begun
to move. This love, which seeks not the destruction of Israel,
but their inward and outward salvation, now breaks forth in v.^^"
(Del.) But the lack of close connection has by no means
escaped notice. Ew. suspected the loss of a v. before v.^^ ; Di.
suggested that Isaiah placed the section, though delivered under
other circumstances, side by side with the foregoing, because
both sections agree in maintaining that only by repentance and
acquiescence in the ethical demands of God can the people be
saved.
It certainly seems doubtful whether Isaiah would in im-
mediate succession first represent the people as red-handed
I. 18-20 27
criminals (v.^^) and then treat the redness of their sins as
hypothetical (v.^^).
Nor must we claim the unity of a trial scene for the chapter. Whether
the vb. in v.** implies the figure of a trial (see below) or not, Cheyne
{Introd. 6) is right in withdrawing his earlier {PI) acquiescence in Ewald's
theory that vv.^"* introduce a great trial scene, of which vv.^^"'^ give the
conclusion, and in abandoning as illegitimate his earlier translation, * * Come
now and let us bring our dispute to an end."
Du. suspects and Marti concludes that vv.** and ^'' ** are unconnected
sayings. The reasons are partly formal ( * ' in v.^ Yahweh speaks, cp. mn' tdk' ;
in v.^^' the prophet, otherwise the closing formula would run : for my mouth
hath spoken it" (Marti)), partly based on the interpretation (see below).
18. Come^ now] the introductory (w) nai? or («3) 13P expresses
various emotions, and is used by persons of different positions,
as (i) by one equal to another, Gn 31** 19^^^ i S'20", 2 K 14*;
(2) by a superior to an inferior, e.g. Jg 19^^, i S 9^*^ 14^; or
(3) by an inferior to a superior Jg 19^^. Other instances are
Gn 3720-87, 2 K 7*, Neh 62-7, Ps 83^, Is 23, Ca 712. The phrase
commonly introduces a proposal for the mutual benefit of the
parties, or, at least, for that of the party addressed. — Let us
reprove one another] the various efforts to render nnaw show how
difficult it is to discover an English equivalent that is at once
etymologically justifiable and suitable to the context. The
Niphal of na* occurs but twice elsewhere : in Gn 20^^ it means
to be righted \ in Job 23^ (followed by DV) it means to argue with^
put one's case. Here the Niphal must be reciprocal. In Job 23^
the Niph. and in Mic t^' the Hithp. occur in connection with
the figure of a lawsuit ; so also the Hiph. is often used of giving
judicial decisions {e.g, 2* 1 1^^-, Job 9^2)^ or in passages where the
figure of a law-court or of judgment is or may be present ; see
Job 138-15 i9» 22*, Ps 518-21, pr 2^26^ Is 2921, Am 5I0, Hab i^\
Hence many claim that it means here let us go to law with one
another^ carry on litigation with one another^ and tacitly, therefore,
that "Israel is worthy of death" (Del.); whence Del. further infers
that Yahweh "is willing to remit the punishment," and to deal
with Israel " not in accordance with His retributive justice, but
according to His free mercy alone." Marti and Du., starting from
the same translation, argue that in a court of law, justice and not
mercy must rule, and that therefore the following saying cannot
contain an offer of free pardon, but something very different.
Yet it is very precarious to base the interpretation of the whole
28 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
passage on the assumption that nn313 must imply a lawsuit ; the
Hiph. (as also the noun nnain) is frequently used where any such
process is definitely excluded or not necessarily present — Gn 21^5,
Ezk 326, Pr 312 97f. 1512 1925 2823, Ps 1416, Job 5^7. The occur-
rence of nriDin and nvy in parallelism (Pr i25. 30) suggests that
nn313 was nearly =nvvi3 {e.g. Neh 6^), and meant little more than
advise together^ reason together (EV). Or, derived from the Hiph
in the sense to reprove^ find fault with {e.g. Ezk 32^, Job 62^), the
Niph. may mean to reprove one another^ to point out one another's
faults, to discuss with one another who is right and who wrong.
Cp. Rashi's comment, "nnD13, i.e. I and you together, that we
may know who has wronged whom : and if it is you who have
wronged me, I will yet give you hope of repentance." For
the offer of free pardon in such a connection, cp. 4322-28 * —
Saith YahweK\ the frequentative sense again : i^^ n. — Though
your sins were] the case is put as a merely imaginary
one (Driver, § 143: cp. e.g. Nu 22^8, Jer 222), and the argu-
ment is : even though the people may have committed the
most flagrant sins, they may regain the highest degree of
innocence ; and if, hereafter, they continue obedient to Yahweh
(v.^®), they may enjoy prosperity. The Hebrew might also
be rendered,! If your sins are . . . they shall become (cp. Dr.
§ 136 (^)), and, perhaps, even though your sins are like scarlet
robes, shall they become white like snow ? and so in the next line.
But Dr. Burney has lately argued with much force that " no clear
case occurs throughout the OT in which a question is to be
assumed as implied by the speaker's tone (without use of an
interrogative particle) in the apodosis of a conditional or con-
cessive sentence " {JThS xi. 433-35).
Especially since the time of J. D. Michaelis, exception has been taken to
the interpretation of v.*^ as an offer of forgiveness, and various others have
been proposed. It is urged that such an offer of complete forgiveness is out
of place in a summons to judgment (yet cp. hbsb'J in 43^ after v.^^), that it
is out of accord with vv.^"^^' ^^^ ^\ that Isaiah "nowhere so complacently
offers the people free forgiveness: ct. 22^*" (Du.). Unless nnsu (see n.
above) necessarily implies the figure of judgment, the first objection falls to
the ground, the second can be met by abandoning the unity of the chapter
* Since the above note was written, C. F. Burney {JThS xi. 433-438)
also has challenged the prevalent view that nnDU implies a legal process.
t J. D. Mich., Koppe, Eichh., We., Box. Cp. G-K. 150a; Davidson,
Syn. 121.
I. i8 29
(for doing which there are other good reasons) ; the third, if its cogency
were admitted, by questioning the Isaianic authorship of the verse.
Elsewhere in OT forgiveness is represented as ( i ) a removal of sin, the
vbs. used being kj^j, tdh, p'n^n, mart; cp. Mic 7^' and the "scapegoat";
(2) a covering over or hiding of sin : nos and ?"1S3 (BDB, Kon. £T xxii.
233) ; (3) a disregarding of sin : cp. "ot k*?, 43^5 ; jsn "^k, Dn 9', see also
Is 38" ; (4) a cleansing from sins or a wiping away of sins, nno and ? nca
(Ges-B. ; ATAT^y 601); cp. Ps Si*-", Zee 13^ The figure here employed
would certainly be unparalleled, if it refers to forgiveness. It has been ai^ed
that it would also be unsuitable, representing the sins, not as vanishing, but
as changing their appearance : they remain as white sins. But the language
is that of poetry not of science, and sins "covered over" also remain. It
has also been urged that the saying makes no allusion to Yahweh's action
in forgiveness, the sins of themselves just become white sins. Yet the intro-
ductory formula may be held to suggest Yahweh's action.
The interrogative interpretation, though grammatically questionable (see
above), would accord with prophetic teaching (see, e.g.y We. Proleg. c. 11,
§ I end ; ed. 4, p. 423 f. ). If the sins are really flagrant, are they to put
on the appearance of mere trifling errors ? The whole argument of Yahweh
in vv.^^-'* then embodies the fundamental new teaching of the prophets :
that Yahweh is Israel's God does not make Him more lenient to Israel's
sin (cp. Am 3^) : scarlet sins He will treat as scarlet, not as white (v.^) :
only through obedience to Yahweh's moral demands can Yahweh's favour
be gained (v.^') : disobedience must invoke disaster (v.^).
Du. and Marti prefer to give the saying a sarcastic tone : though your
sins were scarlet, of course they can easily turn white : of course you know
how to make innocent lambs of yourselves. Then cp. Jer 2^ for a direct
negation of what is here implicit in the sarcasm. But this gives a less
satisfactory connection between vv.^* and ", which Marti (perhaps rightly)
does not seek to establish. Hackm. (p, 118 n.) raises the question whether
scarlet robes are not here symbols of pomp and majesty (cp. Rev 17*), and
the meaning consequently. Your sins, though they may now flaunt forth in
all the glory of colour, will lose it and become washed out. But the associa-
tion of whiteness with innocence as contrasted with sin seems too close to
admit of this interpretation.
Scarlet . . . crimson\ not two colours, but one: the second
word (cp. La 4*^) means primarily worm, the insect whence the
colour was obtained (see EBi, Colours § 14, Crimson, Scarlet).
The first word is pi. D^^K^, and means as in Pr 3121 (cp. sing.
2 S 1^4, Jer 4^0) scarlet clothes : cp. D"'n3, linen clothes (G-K. 125^.
Sin is conceived of as a blood-stained (cp. 63^-2) garment
enwrapping the sinner: cp. the "filthy garments" of iniquity
(Zee 33^-). — White as snow] cp. Ps 51*. Ges. recalls here the
saying of the Arabs, that the holy stone of Mecca fell white
from heaven but became black on account of the sins of men ;
30 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
cp. also, for the whiteness of restored innocence, Rev yis^- 1^'-. —
Like wool] a sheep's fleece as typical of whiteness may appear
to us anti-climactic after snow; but not so to the Hebrews.
Black sheep were exceptional (Gn ^o^^^') : the colour of wool
was regularly white: hence the "beloved's" teeth are compared
to ewes shorn and washed (Ca 4^), and the hair of the
"Ancient of Days" is compared to wool as well as snow
(Dan 7^): Rev i^*, however, is explicit — "as white wool."
19. The alternative here presented — obedience and prosperity,
or disobedience and destruction — recalls Isaiah's attitude when
the Syro-Ephraimitish army was approaching Jerusalem (ch. 7 f.) :
cp. also 3o9ff-i5ff.. — The good of the land] i.e. the produce of the
land: Gn ^f^''^\—Feed] i)3N as in \J.—On husks shall ye feed]
J^ is ambiguous and the exact meaning uncertain. If this line
is symmetrical with the preceding, 2'\T\ should be the direct
object of li>3Kn (Kal); then render either {i) ye shall feed on
desolation (3in), but an abstract noun is not very probable here,
or (2) . . . on desolations (Du. reading nb"in ; note following n),
an idiom used of animals in 5^^, but less obviously applicable
to men, or (3) . . . on husksy lit. the carob^ or carob-pods (3^n,
or D^3-in • see Che. SBOT, and Husks in EBiX There is no
certain example of this word in the text of the OT, but it is
frequent in NH and Aramaic. Carobs were the food of swine
(Lk 15^^) and donkeys (Levy, NHB, s.v.\ and, in time of dis-
tress, of men: cp. Lk 15^^ and the saying in Midrash R. cited
by Levy {NHB iL 105b), "When Israelites are reduced to the
carob (xinni) i)K"it5^ r^^"!^), they repent." If v.^* and v. 20* are
not perfectly symmetrical, J^ may be treated as a bold passive
(MT) construction and rendered either (4) ye shall be devoured
with the sword (RV), or, less probably, (5) ye shall be made to
devour the sword (Ges-B. s.v. 73K). For the idiom the sword
devours in the act., cp. 2 S 2^^ 18^. — For the mouth of Yahweh
hath spoken (/V)] Perhaps a late addition : cp. 40^ 58^^ Mic 4^
and see Cheyne, Introd. p. 7 n. 3. If not, and vv.^^'^o belong
together, the divine speech ends at v.^^, and vv.^^* contains the
prophet's comment : cp. on vv.^-*.
18. D'JB's] 4 MSS (cp. VV.) 'atrD. — iDnx'-DK] many MSS dki: possibly
right, cp. v.^ — note the rhythm, but note also 133^' preceding. — 20. ^V?><^ ain]
to the cstr. assumed by RV (see no. 4 above), an exact parallel is afforded
I. 19 AND 21-26 31
by the Arabic idiom cited by Kon. iii. 102, huriqa Utaubu ^ImismSra, the
garment was torn with the nail. See, further, on Hebrew constructions more
or less similar, G-K. 121c. d; Kon. iii. 3322;.
I. 21-26 (28). — An Elegy on Jerusalem.
In this, as in other ktnoth^ i.e. elegies {e.g. La 1-4), the echoing rhythm
(see Introd.) is employed. Parallelism is constant, but within the distichs
(3 : 2), not as in vv.^*^** ^^'^j between the periods of 5 accents. Of the 12
distichs, or strictly 11 distichs and a line (^^) in the present text, 5 are
unambiguously 3 : 2, viz. vv.2i»« t . 28c. d . 24c. d . mo. d . 2«». b^ ^nd another
(2^ ') is 2 : 3 (makkeph ibeb"-n^ and n3D'?K-3'ni) unless by transposing the lines
(cp. Introduction) we make this also 3 : 2. Another distich (26*- •*) is 4 : 2.
Two distichs consist in the present text of lines that are rhythmically balanced,
viz. ***• "^ (3 : 3) and 2"*- *» (2 : 2) : on these and on the irregularities in 2i«- «>•
24*. b. as* seg notes below.
Yy 21-86 divide into two equal strophes, each containing 6 distichs (in
the present text the second contains but 5i) : the first strophe beginning
with na'H deals with the present state of the city : the second introduced by
pS with its future.
Vv.'"'* contain two distichs of which the former (3 : 2) is exactly similar
in type to those of w.*^*^ : the second (4 : 3) less so.
21 How hath she become a harlot 1
The (once) faithful city,
Sion which was full of justice
Wherein righteousness abode, but now murder«i».
22 Thy silver hath become dross,
Thy drink adulterated (?) with wat«r.
23 Thy rulers are unruly,
And associates of thieves;
Every one loveth bribes.
And pursueth rewards;
They secure not the right of the orphan,
Nor doth the widow's cause come unto them.
2* Therefore saith the Lord
Yahweh of Hosts the Mighty One of Israel :
Ah 1 I will get me comfort from my adversaries,
Avenge myself on my foes.
25 And I will turn my hand against thee.
• •••••*
And I will smelt out thy dross 'in the furnace,'
And remove all thine alloy.
32
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
26 And I will restore thy judges as at the first,
And thy counsellors as at the beginning ;
Afterwards thou shalt be called City of Justice,
Faithful City.
27 Sion shall find redemption through justice,
And they that turn of her through righteousness :
28 And the destruction of rebels and sinners shall be together,
And those that forsake Yahweh shall be consumed.
The following considerations indicate that vv.2i-26 contain a
complete poem distinct from what now precedes it and follows
it: (i) it opens with the characteristic opening of independent
elegies — na^K as in La i^ 2^ 4I, Jer 481^, cp. TtK in 2 S i^^;
(2) it is a complete treatment of a subject which is artistically
treated under two aspects in two symmetrical strophes (see
above) — Jerusalem, its present state (vv. 21-23), its future (vv.24-26) •
(3) in V.26 the subject reaches an effective close ; (4) the relation
between rhythm and parallelism (see above), which is maintained
almost unbroken throughout vv.21-26, scarcely appears at all in
vv.1-20 • V.27 is similar, but in addition to the first three of the
considerations just stated, exegesis (see below) favours the con-
clusion that vv.27f' formed no original part of the elegy. M
The date of the poem is uncertain. The criteria on which
Du. and Hackm. rely for referring it to the time before or
during the Syro-Ephraimitish war, and those which lead Che.
and Marti to refer it to about 705 B.C., are unlike insufficient.
Du. argues that the eschatology which arose out of the crisis
described in chs. 7, 8 is not yet represented here ; Hackm., that
the eschatology agrees with that of ch. 8; Che. and Marti
consider that the parallelism in thought of vv.23^ and ^"^ connects
the two pieces in time, and Marti sees in the misleading leaders
(v. 23) an allusion to the party favouring the Egyptian alliance.
If the similarity of v.23 and v.^^ is not sufficient (and it is not)
to prove that both belong to the same piece, it proves nothing :
the affliction of the orphan and widow was perennial, and cannot
have attracted Isaiah's attention at one period of his life only.
The similarity may rather have been the cause that led an editor
— whether Isaiah or another — to place the one poem after the
other.
■_
I. 21-23 33
21-23. First Strophe. — §ion, once the faithful city, has turned
faithless ; once the loyal wife of Yahweh, she has wandered from
Him and become a harlot (cp. Hos 2). By a further figure
(v.22) and by illustrative literal charges (v.^^), the present
unrighteousness of Sion, once the home of righteousness, is
emphasised: the leaders of the people lead them only into
rebellion against Yahweh ; they pervert justice, letting thieves
go unpunished in return for a share in their gains, and through
their love of unjust gain (cp. 5^8, Mic 3^^) they deprive the poor
who can pay them nothing for their right (cp. vv.^^^-).
Adopting allusively Hosea's figure of the nation, or city, as
Yahweh's wife, Isaiah gives it an even more direct ethical
application. Judah is here Yahweh's faithless wife because she
has taken to be her paramours, not other gods, the Baals, but
unrighteousness.
21. The faithful city\ nnp is a choice synonym for "i^y, the
ordinary word for city (cp. Nu 2i28, Ps 48^), and occurs again
when Isaiah (29^) describes Jerusalem as "the city where David
encamped." Of the days of David the prophet may be here
thinking. The phrase recurs as the closing words of the poem :
what Sion once was it will again become, when it has passed
through the purifying judgment. — Abode\ impf. was wont to
abide ; p to spend the night (cp. lo^*), perhaps because a man's
place by night is his home, developed the further sense to abide ;
cp. Job 172 19*, Ps 25^^^ — V.21, unless the rhythm is quite
irregular, contains two words too much. Possibly the intrusive
clause is the faithful city : if this were omitted, vP- would contain
two good echoing distichs, each contrasting (though the arrange-
ment of the two would be chiastic) the present and past character
of the city. Du. omits the last clause of the v., but now murderers^
which in this case must be a note based on w.^*- ^^ : then the
first clause of the v. describes the present condition (cp. vv.^*- 28^^
and the three remaining clauses glance back at the past con-
dition of the city : in this case Sion (ffi : cp. vv.^^*^- J^) in v.^i^
has been accidentally omitted in J^ : Haupt selects for omission
the clause that was full of justice. — 22. In two figures present
and past are contrasted : the degeneration of the city is like
the exchange of silver for dross, or good sound wine for a
disagreeable drink (see phil. n.). — 23. Thy rulers are unruly^ so
Che. brings out this (D''"niD T"'^^), the first of several paronomasias,
VOL. I. — 3
34 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
which occur in Isaiah's writings ; it may have been borrowed, t<^
gether with the figure of the harlot (v.^^), from Hosea (2. 4^^).
The word DmiD means stubborn^ rebellious (Dt 21^^) ; it is chiefly
used of conduct towards Yahweh, see, e.g.^ 30^ 65^, and cp. the
figure in Hos 4^^. — 23b. Every one\ or rather the whole mass of
them-, cp. 9^^ 15^, and see BDB 481^ (bot). The judges not
only take bribes when offered, but go in pursuit of, follow eagerly
after, payments: they pursue not peace (Dw, Ps 34^^), but
payment {WZ'oh^, here only). i|j
24-26. Second Strophe. — This opens with a different figure :
Judah by her unrighteousness has become, not as in v.^^ the
wandering, disloyal wife, but the enemy of Yahweh on whom
He is about to avenge Himself. But Yahweh contemplates
more than punishment ; He has in view refinement and purifica-
tion ; taking up one of the figures of the first strophe (v.*^), the
prophet asserts that Yahweh will smelt away the dross and
bring again pure silver (v.^^); and then, corresponding to the
literal charges of v.^, comes the promise that Yahweh will
restore again just judges as in the first days of the city, the
days of David, and the city will become again as of yore the
home of righteousness (v.^^)
24. The Lord Yahweh of Hosts'l so 3^ io1«-m 19*: but
here perhaps the words are an addition (Du.) ; Budde and Marti
omit instead the Mighty One of Jacob (Gn 49^*), thinking this
less in place than Yahweh of Hosts, which might here very
suitably suggest — Yahweh who makes war upon His people.
^ read the phrase Mighty One of Jacob in the form mighty ones
of Jacob after the following word ^in ; and this increases the
suspicion that the words may not be original. — 24b. Yahweh
will comfort himself {^V\1)^ as, e.g., Ezk 5^^, Jer 31^^) by taking
vengeance on those unjust rulers who by their unrighteousness
had made themselves His enemies. In the popular use of the
phrase the enemies of Yahweh were the enemies of Israel
(2r : cp. e.g. Jg 5^^) : with Isaiah, as with Amos (cp. Am 5^^'^^),
Yahweh's enemies are His own people. — 25- 1 2«//// turn my hand
against thee\ so Am i*. Zee 13^, Ps 81^^: not "I will bring my
hand again " (RVmarg.), as though another judgment, such as
is described in vv.^^-, had already visited Israel. — / will smelt
away thy dross as with alkali] so J^ ; ^ perhaps differently (see
phil. n.). If the assertion is correct that alkalies were used by
I
I. 23-26 AND 21, 23 35
the ancients to accelerate the separation of the dross in the
ore from the metal (Nowack, Arch. i. 245 ; Ges.), |^ should
mean, I will smelt thee quickly, or clean ((5 : cp. EV) — as
quickly, or clean, as if I used alkali in smelting silver ore. But
this is very doubtful (cp. Dr. on Mai 3^). Elsewhere alkali is
mentioned only as cleansing the person or clothes — see Mai 3*,
Jer 2^2 (nnn), and, perhaps, Job 9^* (">3). Since the i8th century
(Seeker, Lowth) many have emended "13D into 133, in the furnace ;
and this, or IDD, as in the furnace, is probably right. — 25 f- The
verse is important in its bearing on Isaiah's view, or ideal, of the
Future. No individual ruler figures here : the prophet does
not think of a king; but those who advise and give decisions
in the State, those who mould its life, are to be men of char-
acter: under their guidance the people will no longer, as at
present (v. 2^), be led into revolt against Yahweh, but will again
become faithful and righteous. The name, as in all such cases,
denotes the actual character of the city (cp. 62*, Ezk 482^) : it
will actually be the city of righteousness. Again, Isaiah does not
expect the annihilation of Judah, as perhaps Amos expected
that of Israel: the judgment will be severe: good and bad
alike must suffer — according to the figure that is used, the whole
city must pass through the furnace : but in the result the good
will come forth as pure gold, the bad will be cast away as
worthless dross. The removal of the bad is expressed figurat-
ively (v.25^* *') ; the discovery of the good directly (v.^^).
21. 'nttVo] G-K. 90/. — nn p^' pnjt] three accents, or (n3-pV') two. On the
10
IS
impf. \h\ see Dr. § 30. — 22. 1K30] since the text in Hos 4^^ Nah i
doubtful, this may be the only occurrence in Heb. of the noun. The vb.
is used of hard drinking (56*^, Dt 21**, Pr 23^). In Ass. sabu means sesame-
wine, and possibly in Heb. Kao meant specifically some strong or choice
wine. In Arabic UU; (probably a loan word) and some derivative nouns are
used of or with reference to wine generally. — ^ino] meaning uncertain. The
suggestions offered are (i) that ^no, which in NH means to circumcise (cp.
Sid), meant also, though of this there is no evidence, to cut. Then for to
cut wine, meaning to spoil it by adulteration with water, many parallels
are cited by Ges. (after Schultens) from Arabic, e.g. u:i,s;sj.aj-l iJ^A>
W>5f-l^ 'j' lasi-i' y-^csN', and other languages (e.g. "scelus est jugulare
Falemum": Martial i^'), and Marti compares the French couper du vin.
The versions, including EV, paraphrase mixed', better, adulterated — for the
figure has in view wine adulterated in commerce rather than simply weakened
36 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
with water for table use. Cp. fflr ol KdirrfKol aov filayova-i rhv oXvov ^dari
which, however, wrongly turns the figure into a direct charge. (2) Others
(cp. J. Barth, Beitrdge z. Erkl. des Jes. p. 3 f. ) interpret the word in the
light of NH "^mo, Ar. ^J^-*, "the dark turbid liquid pressed out of olives"
(Nold., Che.). — D'on] probably a gloss to secure the understanding of Vinn :
it is rhythmically superfluous. — 23. Two weighty words (subj. and pred.)
in a against two closely connected in b : cp. Dr. LOT, p. 458. Budde to
establish three accents in the first line adds vn. — 24. }3^] frequent in Isaiah :
BDB 4863.-25. y^V n' nn'B'Ki] either the long line of a distich of which
the shorter line has been lost, or a gloss ; see Marti's Comm. where several
possibilities are discussed. The remainder of the v. is a distich 3:2. It
is most unlikely that Du.'s harsh lines (3 : 2 and 2 : 2) are original ; he
divides :
(& renders the entire v. as follows : Kai iird^w rrjv x«/>a fiov irl ck koI irvpdxru)
els KaOapSp. rods d^ a-rreidovvTas dwoX^ffu Kal dtpeXCj Trdvras dvdfMovs dvb aov :
but we cannot safely infer that ffi's Hebrew text was fuller and contained
the now missing half line ; for the overlined words are probably a later
addition to (& : see Thackeray, Grammar^ p. 230.
27/ 28. Two distichs re-open, or enforce, the theme apparently
closed in v.2<J. In thought v.^^ is parallel to v.^^ (the survival
of the good), V.28 to v.^s^. c (^^ destruction of the bad).
Yet the thought is not quite the same : here the writer does
not speak of any judgment yet to come which is to affect all
alike (v.^s and even Am p^*): for the (true) Sion, viz. those
in her who turn away from unrighteousness, the future has only
deliverance (msn) : the coming destruction will affect only the
sinners (cp. 33^- ^^•); ct. her converts^ or they that turn of her, i.e.
converts who belong to §ion, with the terms in v.^s without the
pronoun — sinners have no part or lot in Sion.
Still greater is the difference if IDDK^D and nplX are used of
man^s justice and righteousness,* as in 5^ 9^, Am ^'^ 6^2 . for then
V.27 means §ion will be delivered because she is just and
righteous. As another writer puts it, Yahweh will repay accord-
ing to deserts : to Sion, deliverance, for her conduct has deserved
it; to sinners, destruction (5 9^''-20 61^). If this be the correct
interpretation the verses can scarcely be Isaiah's.
In view of the parallelism of the clauses we must not with
3E (cp. (&) take tOSK'D as meaning the Judgment (Day) as in
Ps. i^, and npnv righteousness; the meanings should be parallel.
* Rashi, ]^i., Ges., Che. al.
J
I. 23-28 37
If Isaiah's, the thought is rather this — Sion, i.e. those in her
who turn away from sin, will be delivered by means of Yahweh's
refining judgment and by His judicial righteousness, which will
distinguish the just from the unjust : cp. the thought of v.^^
and the use of 13BB^ and r\\n'^ in 5!^ 28^^. The hope of the
righteous in Sion was in the fact that Yahweh must do right
and therefore cannot destroy §ion, for in so doing He would
carry away good and bad alike (cp. Gn 18).
27. Shall be ransomed] ms strictly means to buy a person
or animal off from death, etc., by means of a substitute or
money-payment (e.g. Ex 13^^) : it is used figuratively of deliver-
ance from trouble, danger, etc. — Hos 13^*, Ps 78*2 (see Dr. Deut
loi). It is hardly necessary to press the figure as closely as
Du. does — " Sion is to be ransomed, is consequently at present
a slave or debtor. But the strange owner or creditor has not
the right or the full right that he claims. Therefore Sion is not to
be set at liberty by payment, but by a just judgment " : though,
if the passage be post-exilic, it is likely enough that Du. divines
the writer's thought. — They thai turn of her] cp. 6^0 7* lo^^. J^
may also mean her captivity (HJ^K'), and is so taken by (&Sb.
28. '131 ■Q?'i] abrupt and unusual : perhaps rather n?f 1, or n3¥h.
Vv.*'*' cannot be referred with any confidence to Isaiah : see the foregoing
interpretation. Che. {Introd. p. 7) urges : "Of the four participial class
names, though three have points of contact with Isaiah (see 6^*^ 7' i^* ^), none
actually occur in the Book of Isaiah, except in prophecies which on many
grounds cannot be Isaiah's (a. yrs '3!?, 5920; b. D'VB'Ij, 46^ 5312; c. n'»<»n, 13*
33"; d. m.T 'aiy, 65". Add to this that ms (though found in Hos 7^3 13^^)
does not occur elsewhere in true Isaiah, 29^ 35^", not to add 51^^, being
late passages." Not quite conclusive, though suggestive. More suspicious
is the sharp division of the people into two classes defined by their respective
labels : ct. the sinfulness of the entire nation in w.^ '^^' ^^ 2^"^' 3^ 5^"'' ^' d^' **•
8'. Certainly we find in Isaiah the germ of the subsequently permanent
distinction between the two classes in Israel — the sinner and the righteous :
see 8^^'^^, and cp. the distinction of silver and dross, which, however, a fiery
smelting, i.e. a severe judgment affecting the whole people, \% first to rendet
manifest. In vv.^'* the judgment, so it would seem, is to consume a previously
distinguished class of sinners and to rescue those who had previously mani-
fested their righteousness : cp. 65^^-, Mai 3"''^ (3^^-4').
I. 29-31. — Fragments: Condemnation of Tree Worship,
Vv.2»'' contains two distichs of parallel lines in 4 : 4 rhythm (makkeph
vn'-'D and ira'-'a) : there is nothing like them in the rest of the chapter.
38 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
V.^^ contains two disticns m 3 : 2 rhythm : in the first the lines are parallel
in sense. V.^^ resembles v.^.
2^ For * ye ' shall be ashamed of the terebinths in which
ye delighted, d\
And abashed because of the gardens that ye chose;
80 For ye shall be as a terebinth whose leafage fades,
And as a garden which hath no water.
^^ And the strong one shall become tow;
And his work a spark;
And they shall both burn together,
With none to quench them.
The sinners will perish (v.^s), because Yahweh whom they
have forsaken will not, and the gods housing in trees and beside
springs, whom they have chosen in His stead, cannot save
them. Cp. 220 if' 11, Jer 226-28.
Such is the connection if vv.27-3i form a connected whole
and do not rather consist of two fragments — vv.27f- 29-31 * jf
the connection be real, (& may be right in reading all the verbs
in vv.29f- in the 3rd pers. ; but see phil. n.
Nothing in the verses indicates clearly either date or author-
ship. They may have been written by Isaiah either before
722 B.C. and addressed, like 9^-10*, to the Northern kingdom,!
or after that year and addressed to Judah ; or, again, they may
have been written in the 5th cent, and addressed to apostate Jews
by a man like-minded with the author of 65^2 553f. (note "in3 :
little used by Isaiah). | The practices condemned were of great
antiquity and persisted later (Jer 2^"^ 172, Ezk 6^^, Is 57**^* 65^).
29. J^or ye shall be ashamed] i.e. fail to receive expected
help; see 2o5*"-, Jer 12^^ ^gis^ -^[^ ^r (|| ^-,q|-| ^s here and Job 620),
Ps 252^' 37^^. Ve is conjecturally substituted for Ihey (J^ffi) :
see phil. n. — Terebinths] or, more widely, sacred trees. Dv[^]t< may
at times (cp. Hos 4^^^ refer specifically to terebinths ; so (£ in
v. 3^, and see EBi. and DB^ s.v. ; but even more frequently the
word is used of any large umbrageous tree, such as palms, appa-
rently, at Elim (Ex 1 52^), which a numen 7N was popularly supposed
to inhabit or frequent. This wider meaning is intended here,
and ^ significantly paraphrases twi' ctSwAwv avrwi/. The venera-
♦ Che., Du. t Du., Che. % Marti.
I. 29-31 39
tion of such trees was ancient, and must have prevailed in
Canaan before the Hebrew invasion ; the Hebrews who were
loyal to Yahweh either identified the numen with Him (cp. Gn
13I8 iS^*^-, Jg 9^7 etc.), or like Hosea (4^^^-) and this writer, they
recoiled entirely from the veneration of these trees — doubtless
on account of the cults connected with them. Many trees in
Palestine are still thought to be inhabited by spirits, and are the
objects of vows and offerings from both Bedawin and Fellahiin :
see S. I. Curtiss, Primitive Sem. ReL 90 ff., and the material
collected by J. G. Frazer in Sacred Oaks and Terebinths (pp.
iiof.), one of the Anthropological Essays presented to E. B.
Tylor. Lagrange (ReL Skm. 173) denies that the trees themselves
were objects of worship. — 30. These worshippers will perish
like the objects they worship. The life of the holy tree is seen
in its thick foliage, of the numen of a spring in its bubbling
waters : these idolaters will shrivel up and fail like a tree whose
leaves wither and a garden in which the fountain that made it
luxurious flows no more. — 31. This v. might continue v.* as
well as v.^ : rhythmically, it is similar to vv.^^t and dissimilar to
yv.29f.^ It is capable of more than one interpretation as it stands,
and various emendations have been proposed (see phil. n.).
Perhaps the work of the strong means preparations for war,
alliances, and so forth (cp. 31^^') j these works are the sparks
which set fire to the strong who become as tow (mj;3, Jg i6*),
ue. inflammable, and so the strong and all his works come to
nothing — such a meaning would quite accord with Isaiah's
standpoint : cp. 9^^".
29. W3'] 3rd pers. ; but in the dependent relative clause and in the succeed-
ing lines the vbs. are 2nd pers. — omnn, nann, omon, vnn. That this change
was due to the excitement of the author at the end of his discourse (Del. ) is not
rendered probable by Di.'s reference to 5* 22^* 31*. Three Heb. MSS and
% read it^an — a correction rather than a survival from a continuous correct
tradition. The real question is whether wa' is a survival of the true text in
which the verbs were in the 3rd pers. (so (JR), or an early error for iB'nn due
to accident, or a deliberate substitute for iran, the purpose of which was to .
create a connection with v.*. Failing good reasons to the contrary, it is
better to assume a single error {yoy for iB'an) than four. Marti suggests that
the 2nd pers. arose after Dmon, meant to be DCJon, was read onn^n ; but
dR, which has the 3rd pers. (probably substituted for the 2nd pers. of J^ to
improve the connection), does not appear to have read D^i-npn ; if i\^oi\ovro
really presupposes anything but Dnion, it presupposes non. — d'S'xd] the
absence of the art. here is noticeable : ct. nuano. — rhii] agrees with rhyt
40 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
(fem.) not with nVy (masc.) ; cp. ]W t23 oy, v.*. — 31. fon] Am 2't (d'31^n3 ^
of the Amorites). For jon, Lagarde proposed to read \on, and for iVys
in the next clause "i^ya — a sun-image and its Baal. Du.'s criticism of this
emendation has not been met. — i^;/&] possibly for ^^]^.9 ; cp. nKFi, 52''*;
G-K. 93^ ; Kon. ii. 493. More probably Ki. interprets MT (though not |§)
correctly when he sees in }on idol, and ^\!^ the part. — he that makes it. The
fulfilment of the prophecy he then finds in the fact that 'nn '?3 r^v pNnnai
D''?''?Kni D'^'oan vn onni t^xa oVt^iT. — ps'j] Att. Xe7. ; cp. fsj (Ezk i^), NH
pw, Ar. j^lj, to shine ^ flashy sparkle, whence the sense spark is inferred —
perhaps not quite securely. Rubens ( Crit. Remarks y p. 1 1 n. ) suggests f xyj
(cp. 7'^ 55^*)> which as inflammable stuff would be a good parallel to my3 and
would better account for nn* nyni in the next line.
II.-XII. — Prophecies mainly devoted to Judah and Jerusalem.
These chapters very much in their present form probably
constituted a distinct book before the larger work of which
they now are part came into existence. When they were
incorporated in the larger work, the title which had previously
attached to them was retained (2^), in spite of the fact that
another was prefixed (i^) to the first chapter of the larger work
(see Introd. § 29). The title, 2^, describes the prophecies as
the word^ or matter^ which Isaiah the son of ^ Amos saw (in vision :
cp. 13^) concerning Judah and Jerusalem. On the names and on
the conceptions underlying the terminology, see i^ n. The
scope of these chapters is fairly well described as Judah and
Jerusalem (i^ n.), though this is not an exhaustive description,
since g'^-io* is primarily concerned with Ephraim; but this
title was, of course, never intended to cover chs. 13-23, which
mainly consist of prophecies concerning foreign nations, and are
provided with another title (13^).
It has been argued that originally the title 2^ stood immediately
before 2* and that 22-*, now misplaced, formed the conclusion,
and that an admirable one, to i^^*^^ (Lagarde, Stade, Gesch. i.
608 ; Cheyne, Marti) ; but the argument is very precarious.
These chapters fall into groups as follows : 2-4, 5, 6-9^, 9''-ioS
10^-12.
1 1. -IV. — Jerusalem ideal and actual. «P
The sections into which these chapters fall and their
contents may be briefly described thus : — 2^ Title (see above) ;
2^"* Jerusalem the religious centre of the entire world ; 2^*22 Tj^g
I. 31-II. 4 41
Day of Yahweh, which is about to bring low the land of Jacob,
now wealthy, self- sufficient, and forgetful of Yahweh ; 3^-^'^
Jerusalem and Judah denounced and threatened; 3^*^-4^
Denunciation of the women of Jerusalem ; 42-^ The holiness
and glory of Jerusalem after a purifying judgment.
Jerusalem is the prominent, when it is not the exclusive,
subject of every section, except 2'^"22. The entire section consists
of warnings by Isaiah of judgment to come (2*^-41) enclosed
between two poems of exilic or post-exilic writers who had an
eye only for glory to come, and either disregarded judgment
altogether {2^"^), or looked upon it as, in large part at least,
accomplished (4^'®).
II. I. — Title. — See above.
njn njTKj (& 6 yepSfievos wpds, i.e. Vk 7\''7\ nts-K ; cp. Hos iS Jl 1*. With
J^, cp. Am I* : in Mic i' both Vk .Tn ne'K and nm nrK occur.
II. 2-4. — ^ion the religious Capital of the World,
Including the two final lines, absent from the text of Is. but found in Mic
4*, the following poem contains ten distichs of balanced (3 : 3, or 2 : 2) and
parallel lines. V.***' • is a 2:2 distich ; the remaining distichs are 3 : 3,
except that the now uncertain text of v.^**^ /«ay have contained irregularities,
and v.^, if the nD« is original, contained four accents ; in v.^ Dn'nin'jm was
probably read as two, and in v.^ ♦U"^k-ij (cp. Sievers) as one.
I.
2 And it shall come to pass in the end of the days
The mountain of Yahweh a shall be
Firmly set on the top of the mountains,
And raised higher than the hills.
2.
And nations shall come streaming to it,
3 And many peoples shall go and say :
Come and let us go up to Yahweh's mountain,
And to the house of the God of Jacob :
3-
That he may instruct us out of his ways,
And that we may walk in his paths.
For from §ion instruction goes forth.
And the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem,
42 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
* And he will judge between the nations,
And give decisions for many peoples;
And they will beat their swords into ploughshares,
And their spears into pruning-knives.
5-
Nation against nation shall not lift up sword.
Nor learn any more (the art of) war,
[Mic * But they will dwell each under his vine
And under his fig-tree, with none to terrify.]
A strophic arrangement so naturally reveals itself that it
reasonable to suppose that it was intended : the ten distichs
divide into five sets of twos (Marti), each of which deals with a
distinct point or aspect of the subject, thus :
1. The exaltation of Sion.
2. The advent of the Nations ;
3. To obtain, at its source, instruction in the religion of
Yahweh.
4. Yahweh, the arbiter of the Nations.
5. Under Yahweh's government (strophe 4) there will be
universal peace and unmolested enjoyment of the fruits of the
earth.
Du.'s division into three strophes of six lines is much less probable. That
the poem may be read in its completeness, the final lines from Micah are
added in square brackets, without prejudice to the question whether they
ever formed part of the Book of Isaiah. So in regard to the numerous
variations between the text of the poem as given in Is. and Mic. (Hebrew
and Greek) it is impossible to determine whether the inferior readings arose
before, at the time of, or after incorporation in either book ; consequently
the translation is based on what appears to be the nearest that we can get to
the original text of the poem by a comparison of the two forms in which it
occurs.
The origin of the poem is obscure ; that it occurs both in the
Book of Isaiah and in the Book of the Twelve (Mic 2'^-^)
necessarily raises questions, and these have been very differently
answered.
In the earlier stages of criticism the questions asked were — Was the poem
written by Isaiah and borrowed by Micah ? or written by Micah and borrowed
11. 2-4 43
by Isaiah? or borrowed by both these prophets from some now unknown
predecessor ? It was assumed that one at least of the two prophets must have
borrowed. We need scarcely with Du. pronounce such borrowing on the part
of a true prophet incredible, or, if real, a theft (Jer 23^) ; still there is no
other clear example of a prophet borrowing from another at this length, and
this being so it would be strange that this particular poem should be cited
independently by two prophets. But once due weight is given to the
character of the books of prophetic literature, this assumption that either
prophet borrowed becomes unnecessary, not to say precarious. The Book of
Isaiah and the Book of the Twelve are alike collections made after the Exile,
and indeed not long before the end of the 3rd cent. B.C. (Introd. §§ 8ff. 35) ;
this poem has been preserved in both collections, just as some Psalms {e.g. 14
= 53) have been preserved in more than one hymn-book. It is perfectly
possible that this poem owes its double preservation not to a double process
either of quotation or interpolation, but to the fact that at some time before
the close of the 3rd cent, it passed under two ascriptions, — to Micah and
Isaiah respectively, — and was therefore incorporated by two editors in their
different compilations. It is important to observe that the poem stands
isolated in both books ; in Isaiah it follows a title, and has therefore no
connection with what precedes ; in Micah it follows the statement that §ion,
Jerusalem, and the mountain of the house will be reduced to desolation. If
the poem were really appended by Micah, it is difficult to believe that he
would have left the strong contrast entirely unmarked ; so necessary is it to mark
it (if the passages are really connected) that RV mistranslates n'm, but it shall
come to pass i etc., in order to create an antithesis, though as a matter of fact
iTiTi marks sequence not contrast. Even if Micah were quoting, he could
have secured the contrast by simply dropping rrm and starting his quotation
with the next word. If Micah added 4^"* to 3^'^^ the apologists for Jeremiah
were singularly audacious in their use of 3^^ (Jer 26^^). What follows the
poem in Isaiah has some sort of connection with it (see on v.''), so also has
what follows in Micah ; yet in neither place is it the connection of originally
continuous passages. Both editors, wishing to include the poem in their collec-
tions, had to find some place for it ; but the reasons for the particular place
given elude us just as do the reasons for the order in which Psalm follows
Psalm, though the editor of Micah may have been guided by the principle of
catch-word arrangement ("mountain of the house" — 3^^ 4^). Whether the
poem owes its place in Isaiah to the final editor of the book, or to the
compiler of chs. 2-12, is uncertain : perhaps the latter alternative is the more
probable.
Judged by itself, without prejudice derived from its present
position, the poem perhaps does not betray its origin un-
mistakably. But if the arguments that have been adduced
be insufficient to prove that it was not written in the 8th cent.
B.C., still more insufficient are the arguments to prove that it
was. The spirit of the whole and some of the particular ideas,
as hinted in the commentary that follows, leave the impression
44 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
of a passage that was written nearer to the time of chs. 40-55 and
Ezek. than of Isaiah. jjii
If Zee 8^*^'*^, Jl 4^" be reminiscences and not anticipations of lines of
the poem, a minimum date is fixed ; the poem in that case is earlier than
520 B.C. For the theory, still preferred by Box, that the poem is the work of
a prophet earlier than either Mic. or Is., see Koppe, Hitz., Ew., Del., Di. ;
the similarities to Joel on which this theory partly rested now point, for what
they are worth, to a post-exilic origin, for the theory of the early origin of
Joel scarcely continues to be defensible. The authorship of Isaiah is still
maintained by Du. (who connects the passage with 11^"^ 32^"''' ^''"'^ as products
of Isaiah's old age) ; the authorship of Mic. by Ryssel, Textgeschichte des Micha^
218-224 (see also Ges.) ; G. A. Smith argues for the *' possibility of a date in
the 8th or beginning of the 7th cent." {Book of the Twelve, i. 365-367). The
later origin of the poem suggested by Stade {ZATJV, 1881, 165-167, and
1884, 292) is accepted by We. {Klcine Proph. I39f.), Nowack {Kleine
Propheten)^ Hackmann (126 fF. ), Cheyne {introd. 9-16), and Toy {Judaism and
Christianity y 313). Toy, with whom Marti agrees, dates the poem about
500 B.C., though he considers the beginning of the Greek period also possible.
2a. b. C. d. First Strophe. — The text is in some details
uncertain (see phil. n.). — In the end of the days] " the final
period of the future so far as it falls within the range of the
speaker's perspective " (Dr. Deut. p. 74) : the phrase is applied,
for example, to Israel's settlement in Canaan (Gn 49^), to
Israel's conquest of Edom and Moab (Nu 24^*), and, as here,
to the Messianic age ; cp. e.g. Hos 3^ Jer 2320, and in NT He
I*, I P 1^0, Jn 6^^ 12^8. The phrase itself is not late (cp. in
Assyr. ina ahrat umi)\ nor is it safe to conclude with Che.
{Introd. 11) and Marti that it is necessarily so when used in
connection with Messianic expectations ; so soon as such
expectations arose and needed expression, such a phrase being
obviously suitable would naturally be employed. — YahweKs
mountain] i.e. Mt. Sion. YahweKs mountain is the reading of
ffi both here and in Mic. J^ in both places has the unique
phrase mountain of YahwehUs house \ cp. mountain of the
House^ Mic 3'^^ The temple is directly mentioned in the next
line. — Firmly set] for the force of }133, cp. Jg 162^ and
especially Ps 93^^- ; the word is the opposite of DID, which
describes the tottering or shaking of that which has become
insecure, whether mountains (Ps 46^) or kingdoms (i^. vJ).
After all the commotions which will precede the Messianic age,
removing the things that can be shaken (Hag 2^^-, He 1226^-),
". 2, 3 45
Mt. Sion and the universal kingdom of which it will be the
centre (Ps 87) will remain immovable, unshaken, because the
one true God, governor and judge of all nations (strophe 4), is
there (Ps 46^). The poet breathes the same spiritual atmosphere
as the authors of Ps 46 and 87 : cp. also Is 9®. — On the top of
the mountains] this is but one of the possible translations of the
phrase D^"inn 6^X13 : for this rendering, cp. e.g. Ex 24^^, Is 42^^
Doubtless {^Ni i>y might have been used to express this (Di.),
but is scarcely necessary. Other possible translations are (i) as
the chief of the mountains^ or the chief choicest mountain : for the
1 essentiae, cp. G-K. 119/, BDB 88^; and for ^^'^ = chief cp. e.g.
Jg 10^^, Ezk 2']^^ {choicest) ; (2) on the chief of the mountains ; Du.
adopts this in connection with a reading of fit " and the house
of (our) God (shall be established) on the chief of the moun-
tains." But this is not the most probable text : see phil. n.
The effect of it is to predict the coming exaltation directly of
the temple and only indirectly of Mt. Sion. Whatever translation
be correct, the entire meaning is hardly that mountain will be
piled on mountain and Mt. Sion on the top of all, though this
interpretation appears in Rabbinic literature : " The Holy One
will bring Sinai and Tabor and Carmel, and build the Sanctuary
on the top of them " (Fesi^ta R. Kahana, 144^). On the other
hand, it is unlikely that it is merely metaphorical (Di.) ; but as
Messianic expectation looked forward to various transformations
in the physical world (40* 41^^^-, Ezk 47^^-, Jl 4(3)^^ Zee 14),
so here to the elevation of Mt. Sion to such a height that it
should overtop all mountains instead of being, as in the actual
world, overtopped by other mountains of Palestine (Ps 68^'^*^')
and even by the neighbouring mountains ; the Mt. of Olives, for
example, is nearly 300 feet higher. To Ezekiel, the temple hill
in vision appeared " very high " (40^), and the author of Zee 14^®
expected the relative elevation of Sion to be produced by the
depression of the surrounding country (cp. below, vv.^^ff.^^
2e, 3a. b. C. Second Strophe. — All nations will come
streaming (x^nTf Jer 31^2 51^4) to this conspicuous and immov-
able mountain — to Sion and to Yahweh, no more to Babylon
and to Bel (Jer 51^). The expectation of such an advent of the
nations frequently occurs in late prophecies, e.g. 60, 66^3, Jer
3!^ Zee 820-22 14I6-W Hag 2^^-: cp. Ps 651^- etc.— But did the
prophets of the 8th cent, attach this world-wide significance to
46
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
the Temple and the Temple Mount ? — God of Jacob'\ The
phrase occurs nowhere else in either Isaiah or Micah : it is
frequent in the Psalms {^e.g. 46^ 75^^ 76'^ 84^) : see also 2 S 23^.
3d. e. f. g. Third Strophe. — The object of the nations in
coming to Sion will be to learn and practise the only true
religion — the ways^ or conduct, which Yahweh prescribes and
approves. The nations are to feel the moral attraction of the
Hebrew or Jewish religion. The standpoint is substantially that
of chs. 40-55 (see, e.g.^ 42^^') with some differences in detail; in
40-55 the missionary people are to carry the knowledge of
Yahweh to the nations ; here, the nations are to come to §ion
to receive it (cp. Ps 87, Zee 820-22): in 40-55 Israel is the
Teacher ; here, Yahweh Himself (cp. Ps 94^^). But the political
subserviency of the nations to Israel, as sometimes anticipated
{e.g. 60^2)^ seems as little thought of here as in chs. 40-55. Du.,
however, in defending the Isaianic authorship minimises the
meaning unduly : " perhaps," he says, " the nations will not even
give up their own cults : they merely acknowledge that Yahweh
is the most upright and truest God. Recognition to a certain
extent of strange gods was something quite usual in antiquity :
even earlier, foreigners sought Yahweh (Naaman), or Israelites
other gods (2 K i)." But the outlook here is to something
unusual, something fresh and remarkable. — That he may instruct
us of his ways] of (p) = out of (the treasure of), not concerning :
cp. Ps 94^2^ cp, Ec 7^^ — For from Sion (emphatic) . . . from
Jerusalem] the lines are perhaps echoed in 37^2 (Meinhold,
p. 47>
4a. b. C. d. Fourth Strophe. — If all the nations practise the
moral requirements of the religion of Yahweh (strophe 3), they
will naturally refer their disputes to Him, He alone being God
and King ; there will be no further need for the arbitrament of
war. The writer's ideal is universal peace (strophe 5) ; ct. the
conceptions underlying the ancient phrases " the Wars of
Yahweh," "the day of Yahweh." The reverse of the last two
lines occurs in Jl 4^^ : on the relation between the two passages,
see Exp.^ Sept. 1893, pp. 214 f., 218 f. — Ploughshares] is the
conventional rendering of DTIN, which is obviously the name
of an agricultural implement; but precisely what, neither the
etymology, which is obscure, nor the usage (i S \'^^^\ Jl 4^^ Mic
4^t), suffices to determine.
II. 2-4 47
4 e. f. + Mic 4**•^ Filth Strophe. — The poem closed
with a picture of world-wide peace and quiet agricultural life.
2. It is not certain that the existing evidence preserves quite completely
the original words of this first strophe. However we choose amongst it,
some awkwardness remains. On the whole, Mic. seems distinctly better than
Is. ; the rhythm in Mic. is that of the rest of the poem, and the parallelism
is better. To make this clear both texts are given here, rhythmically
marked :
Is. mn'-nu in | iT.t p33 | cd'h nnnN3 1| .rm
.niynjD hvzi \ w^nn J5'K^3
Mic. ni.T n'3 -in n\T | wen nnnwa n'm
.niyaao Kin HVi^ \ D'-inn vmi pn
In Isaiah, after throwing n'm out of the rhythmical scheme, we have the
long six-accented line with two caesuras, which is unparalleled, and scarcely
very suitable, in this poem. The words mynjo HVi^ nnnn vmi also awaken
suspicion, not because they would form a 2 : 2 distich (v.*^ *), but because they
seem insufficiently independent to form a distich at all. This second objec-
tion applies also in some degree to the second distich in Mic, unless we may
give to n'-T a force greater than that of the mere copulative or auxiliary :
if it could mean here, as, of course, it often does elsewhere {e.g. Gn i and BDB,
col. 226 bot.), come into existence^ the two distichs would be sufficiently inde-
pendent. Was there a belief that there would be a new creation of the mountain
of Yahweh in the Messianic age ? and even if so could such a belief be expressed
by n\T ? But the reading n'.T is not free from suspicion : for it (apparently) Mic.
(K has ifi(f>avis, and Is. dSt has ifi<pavh for n\T p33 ; iii<j>avii might conceivably
(cp. 65^) point to rrr (Niph. of m as used in Am 5"), if this vb. yielded a
meaning more suitable to the strophe instead of one that anticipates the next.
For some other features of (& see following notes, and for a view in some
respects different see SBOT. — .t.t . . . .rni] cp. ^'^ -. also 718.21^ ^nd see
Dr. § 121. For n'm ffi reads n'rr o, which Du. adopts.— m.T ma nn] the
phrase occurs nowhere else ; it may be the result of a conflation of the
readings. (K in Mic. simply has rh 6pos toO Kvpiov, i.e. n'3 is absent, while
here (K reads rh 6pos Kvpiov Kal 6 oTkos tov deov, i.e. D'n'?K n'3i ni.T nn — the
two readings not yet conflate (cp. v.'). — niyaJD nb'Ji] Mic. mynjD Kin kwi ;
the length of the line in Mic. is more probably correct than in Is. On the
other hand, Kin, if to be expressed, might rather be expected in the previous
clause. (& Is. koL v^w^ijcrerat inr^pdvu) tCjp ^ovvdv, (& Mic. koI fieTeupiadi/ia-eTai
{nrepdv(o tQv povvwv ; except in these two passages inrepdvu) nowhere else renders
the simple D. Did ^ ^yo once stand here (cp. Mai i'', Gn 5')? Possibly ^
but the corruption of *? '?j;d into D Kin is not easy. — v'?k] Mic. v^y. — D'un-'?3]
read D'la ; cp. Mic. ; So makes o'm of the parallel clause anti-climactic. In Mic.
D'u stands in the next line, D'Dy here : © has here (ret) iQpt] in both clauses
( = D'u). The same difference between the Hebrew texts occurs in v.*»* *• =
Mic 4**' ^ — 4. D'm D'DV . . . D'un] Mic. pirn ny D'Dsy d'u . . . D'm o'oy (K
supporting |§). Rhythm strongly favours the originality of Is. here ; the
text of Mic. may have been influenced by Zee 2P^,
48 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
1
4
5. A brief homiletic reflection which unites the poem
that precedes with that which follows, and derives its phraseology
in part from the one, in part from the other : — O house of Jacob
(cp. v.^), come and let us go (cp. v.^) in the light of Yahweh : i.e.
let us not be behind the nations as while what is next described
continues (w.^^*), we are ; they propose to walk in Yahweh's paths :
let us do the same, following the path lighted w^ by the law (cp. Ps
I \(^^^y Pr 6^3). The words are apparently prose, and certainly out-
side the rhythmic and strophic scheme of either the preceding
or the following poem : they are probably an editorial remark.
Mic 4^'* ( = Is 2^**) is followed by (i) the concluding formula, "for the
mouth of Yahweh of Hosts hath spoken it" (cp. Is \^ ^o^ 58^^), and then (2)
by a homiletic reflection fuller and more rhythmical than Is. : in Micah the
point is — at present the nations walk each in the name of its god, but we in
the way of our God, the true God. Mic. asserts what Is. exhorts to. What
then is the relation between the two ? or are they the independent comments on
the poem of two different editors ? Obviously the words O house of Jacob are to
be explained from what follows in Is., i.e. so much of Is. is independent : thus
the common matter is reduced to m.r nwa r\:hy\ 13^ (Is.) and 13*?' D'oyn Va ♦a
njn oSiy^ irn^x m.T ^vi i?i unJKi mn* or 3 vh (Mic), and the actual verbal
coincidence is limited to the overlined words ; these are derived from the
poem, and in making a variation on the phrase used in the poem mK3 ^Vn
mn'. Is. and Mic. differ from one another (Is. mw, Mic. Dv). If either passage is
dependent on the other, is Mic 4' an expansion of Is 2° (Che.), or Is 2" an
abbreviation of Mic 4° (Marti)? If, as has been urged, the editor of Is.
abbreviated because there was merely so much space to fill up, why did he
add O house of Jacob} The closer approximation of the na^ji ^^h of Is. as
compared with the "i'?J ijnJNi of Mic. to the phraseology of the poem (nVyji laS
and '3 nsVii) might seem to favour the priority of Is. But the question is
hardly to be answered with confidence either way.
II. 6-22. — The Day of Yahweh.
This section, pronounced by Du. to be the worst preserved
of the entire book, has certainly suffered very serious mutilation
in transmission. (& preserves some better readings than |^ (see
V.® n.), but the text had already fallen into disorder before the
time of ffi. In the main the sense is clear in spite of the state
of the text, but it is more difficult to determine with certainty the
form of the poem (or poems).
The presence of refrains (v." = v.", cp. v.* : and v.^*' = v,^=v.2i) points
to a poem (or poems) divided into strophes. But what is the rhythm ? In
vyia-17 (down to n3'7 ; in v. ^' omit o'NB'jm CDnn) and in v.^^ we have 15
lines of three accents, for the most part combined into distichs of parallel
II. 5, 6-22 49
lines; six, or if we makkeph 3nn »)D3 in v.'* all, of the seven lines in vv."-
and the last line of the refrain in vv.^^- ^^ are of the same length ; so also is
the last line of v.', which at present stands isolated and without a parallel.
On the other hand, the first part of v.* in "^ certainly is not in 3 : 3 rhythna ;
possibly it should be read as two distichs 3 : 2, though the second of these
is certainly corrupt and the first is rather 2 : 2, if not indeed u sin^^le line of
three accents (Sievers). There is at least one distich 3 : 2, perhaps two, in
the refrain as it appears in vv.^^'^^ : but as it appears in v.^" it contains at most
one 3 : 2 distich ; even that, as the other distich certainly is, may be 2 : 2.
Whether in any of the three places the refrain now retains its original form
may be doubted. Clearly then the dominant rhythm throughout w.''^^ is
3 : 3, and it is not improbable that this rhythm was originally maintained
unbroken. Du., followed by Cheyne, has indeed postulated two fragments
with different rhythm : (a) vv."*^^, rhythm 3 : 3 ; (^) vv.'^^"- ^^'^i, long lines
(3 + 2, or the like). But the difference in rhythm, if it existed at all, did not
originally, nor does it now, coincide with this division.
Obviously v.® is not the beginning of a poem, perhaps one or
two strophes have been lost (Du.) ; or the refrain now appearing
in w.^^- 1^- 21 was an opening refrain, and this alone preceded v.* ;
then w.^and ^^ are closing refrains (Marti). The matter peculiar
to each strophe probably consisted of twelve lines, i.e. six distichs.
Enough has been said to indicate that the form of the
following translation is only an approximation to that of the
original poem.
I.
*• Enter into the caves of the rocks,
And [hide yourselves] in the holes of the dust;
Away from the terror of Yahweh,
And from His glorious majesty,
When he arises to terrify the earth.
• For he hath abandoned his people,
. . . the house of Jacob,
For his land is full of 'traders' (?)
And ' he ' strikes bargains with (?) the children of foreigners,
'^ And (so) his land has become full of silver and gold.
And there is no end to his stores;
And (so) his land has become full of horses,
And there is no end to his chariots;
• And so his land has become full of idols,
To the work of his hands 'he* bows down.
To that which his fingers have made.
VOL. I. — 4
50 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
(9) 1^ ' And ' the pride of man shall * sink low,'
And the loftiness of man be ' abased ' ;
And Yahweh alone shall be exalted, a
[But the idols shall one and all vanish]
2.
^® Enter into [the caves of] the rock,
And hide yourselves in [the holes of] the dust;
Away from the terror of Yahweh
And from His glorious majesty.
^ For Yahweh of Hosts hath a day,
Against everything that is proud and lofty,
And against everything that is uplifted and 'high,'
^ And against all cedars of Lebanon, a a
And against all oaks of Bashan;
^* And against all lofty mountains,
And against all uplifted hills;
^^ And against every high tower.
And against every fortified wall;
^^ And against all ships of Tarshish,
And against all . . .
^^ And the pride of man shall sink low,
And the loftiness of man be abased:
And Yahweh alone shall be exalted a a
^8 But the idols shall one and all vanish.
The subject of the poem is the Day of Yahweh {y^^)f when
Yahweh will gloriously and terribly manifest His presence (v.^<>).
Isaiah follows Amos in depicting this " Day," which was popularly
expected to bring "light" and national success (Am 5^^), as a
day of terror for Israel no less than for the rest of the world. It
is not to be a day on which Israel's foes will for ever go under
and Israel emerge successful, but on which Israel with the rest of
mankind will do well to seek out holes and crannies (w.^®* ^^), if
haply they may there cower away from Yahweh. And the reason
for this common doom that awaits Israel as well as the rest of the
world is Israel's abandonment of Yahweh, which has led in turn
to His abandonment of them. Israel has grown wealthy, and has
II. 6-22 5'
expended its wealth on equipments for war (vJ) and on the
manufacture of idols (v.^) and in these has placed its trust;
thereby in Yahweh's judgment, if not in its own, showing dis-
loyalty to Yahweh : consequently Yahweh has abandoned Israel ;
it is no more His people, has no longer closer ties with Him than
the rest of mankind, and must therefore share the result of the
common overthrow of all wherein man places his pride and
confidence on the day which will show Yahweh alone supreme,
and all the works of man's hands, including the idols, valueless
(yyii. 19), According to the present text of v.^ a specific offence
of Israel has been the practice of magic ; whether this is what
was originally intended by that line, or whether it spoke of a
recent increase in foreign trade as the cause of the increased
wealth that has led to abandonment of Yahweh, is discussed
below. The first strophe dwells more fully on the present
condition of Israel (^^'^), the two refrains and the ominous words
of v.^* ^ indicating the coming doom. The second strophe is
entirely devoted to a description of that doom — the day of
Yahweh is at hand, when He will overthrow all lofty and towering
objects and man's pride itself, all that rises above the ordinary
level and thereby even distantly competes with the sole exaltation
of Yahweh which the " Day " is to manifest, and consequently
all the objects in which foolish man, not recognising Him that is
truly High and lifted up, has vainly placed his trust.
Whether these two strophes constituted the entire poem or
not, the connection of the two main subjects — prevailing sin and
inevitable judgment — is clear and characteristically prophetic;
and each is forcibly expressed by the monotonous cast of the
sentences : wealth, wealth, nothing but wealth and the trust in it
(yy 6-8) ; overthrow, overthrow, nothing but overthrow of all else
but Yahweh (w.^^-iej^
Since the term " House of Jacob " in v.^ is ambiguous, it
must remain uncertain whether Isaiah is here depicting the doom
of the Northern Kingdom (as in g''^' 1 7^-*), or of the Southern
Kingdom, or of both together. In either case the prevalence of
wealth and the easy confidence in the more than sufficiency of
the military resources of the kingdom point to a very early period
in Isaiah's career — say before the Assyrian campaign of 738 B.C.,
— as the probable if not certain date of the poem ; some, too, detect
the "rush and abandon'* of youth in the composition, and the
52 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
influence in vv.^^'^^ of the great earthquake that occurred in
Isaiah's childhood (Am i^, Zee 14^).
6. For he. hath abandoned his people\ so ^ : }^ for thou has\
abandoned thy people (see phil. n.). The words are obviously
not the beginning of a poem ; nor could they be so regarded,
even if '•D might be rendered surely^ or certainly (BDB, p.
472^5 : cp. Nu 23*^^ n.). Nor can they give the reason for v.*;
they cannot mean " for thou (Israel) hast abandoned thy
nationality, or national character " * — an interpretation which
places on DV an impossible meaning. The subject of the vb.,
whether the 3rd pers. (ffi) or the 2nd (f^), is God. What originally
preceded v.^ can only be conjectured ; if, as in the translation
above, the refrain of ysP- ^®- ^i, the reading of ffi is the more
suitable.— ^<3^<?^] €r Israel', either term might refer exclusively
to the Northern kingdom (9^^) ; but 8^* proves that " Israel " with
Isaiah included Judah, and the same is doubtless true of Jacob
(cp., further, 5^ 8^'' \qP- 29^2). In Mic 2,^- Jacobs House of Jacobs
is even used when the reference is to Judah exclusively. — For his
(i.e. Jacob's) land is full of etc.] so fflr, in harmony with the follow
ing lines : '^for they are full of The last part of v.^ is certainly
more or less corrupt (see phil. n.). Literally rendered, |^ reads ;
For they are full from (or, fuller than) the East,
(or. For they are full from of old)
And of (or, and (they are)) soothsayers like the Philistines,
And they strike (bargains) with (?) the children of
foreigners.
ffi reads :
And their land is full as of old of soothsayings like that of
the Philistines,
And many alien children have been born to them.
The first line in J^ obviously lacks an object : RV " for they
be filled (with customs) from the East " is not a translation of ?^,
but virtually rests on an unacknowledged and improbable con-
jectural emendation. Many others since Lowth have conjecturally
supplied, as an object to they are full of the word diviners : then
the first and second lines in J§ thus emended express the same
general thought as the first line in ffi — the land of Jacob is full
of soothsayers. The connection between the presence of sooth^
* Saad., Hitz. I
II. 6 53
sayers and the striking of bargains with foreigners (third line in f^)
is not obvious ; and since the meaning of the third line is by no
means beyond question, Marti suspects a third reference in that
line to magic or enchantment Still no such meaning can be
extracted from the text of the third line or from any obvious
emendation of it. But if we look at the wider context, another
question arises, viz.. Is any reference to soothsaying or the like
probable? Ought we not rather to find in the line(s) that precede
a sense parallel to that of the third line ? By a conjecture dis-
cussed in the phil. n. and more fully in ZATW^ 191 1, pp. 112 ff.,
and tentatively expressed in the above translation, this is obtained.
Judah (or Israel) has become a busy commercial people thronged
with foreign traders : hence flows wealth, which is expended on
munitions of war and the manufacture of handiwork to which,
instead of Yahweh, the people pay worship. The word DiWD,
conjecturally substituted for D^33y and rendered ^^ traders ^^ is
literally Canaanites (cp. Zeph i^^, Ezk i629, and? Hos 12®; Is
238, Pr 3i24, and ? Zee 14^^) — a fact which would increase the
suitability di foreigners in the parallel. For the association of the
presence of foreigners with a wealth-producing commerce, cp.
ch. 23, Ezk 27. On the increase of trade in Israel in the sixth
century B.C., see G. A. Smith in EBi. 5174, " the Hebrew prophets
from Amos onwards bear witness to an extraordinary increase of
trade, and to the tempers which grow with it. . . . The old agri-
cultural economy is disturbed ; farmers give place on their ancestral
lands to a new class of rich men, who can only have been created
by trade ; and the rural districts are partly depopulated (Is 5^*^,
Mic 2^-^' ^). The sins of trade : covetousness, false weights, and
the oppression of debtors and of the poor, are frequently castigated
(Am 2« 4I S^ff-, Hos 12^, Is 36- ^ 523, Mic 2 and 3)."— Z//^^ the
Philistines^ the appropriateness of the comparison in the text of
1^ or ffi is obscure. We have no other indication that the
Philistines were pre-eminent in divination. That the Philistines
consulted oracles (2 K i^) and resorted to magic practices (i S
62) merely shows that they formed no exception to the general
habits of the ancient world. On the other hand, the Philistines
were great traders, and Gaza was one of the great markets of the
ancient world : cp. G. A. Smith, Hist. Geog., ch. ix. If we retain
the Hebrew text, we may perhaps best explain — alike from East
and West (cp. 9^1 ii^*) they borrow their magic customs. The
54 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
particular form of magic expressed by D''33y, which is denounced
in Dt 1 8^0, Lv 19^6, and otherwise referred to in Jg q^^^, Mic 5^1,
Is 57^, 2 K 21^, is uncertain; it has been variously explained
from py, a cloud, hence rain-producers, from |^y, the eye, hence
persons who exercise the power of the evil-eye, a power widely
believed in and dreaded down to the present day in Palestine ;
from the Arabic gunnat, a twang, the hum of insects, hence
diviners as the interpreters of such sounds, or as delivering their
instruction with such sounds, or " singing " * their spells ; and
from the Arabic 'anna, to appear, hence dealers in phenomena
(see references in BDB, j.z;.). — He strikes bargains with foreigners^
f^ they, etc. : the sing, in reference to Jacob, the personified
people, should probably be restored in agreement with the
following clauses. On the degree of uncertainty attaching to the
verb, see phil. n. : the rendering adopted seems at least more
probable than the alternative they abound with (©, AVmarg.). — 7.
Whether the previous v. had led up to it or not, we have here
clearly enough a description and tacit condemnation of the
multiplication of material resources {gold, silver, and stores) and
equipment of war {horses, chariots) which had been the result of
the long and successful reign of Jeroboam 11. in the N. and of
Uzziah in the S. Isaiah in common with other prophetic writers
condemns these things because they blind men to worthy and
spiritual ideals, which are summed up for him in Yahweh the
Holy One of Israel: cp. 3015-17 31I-3, Mic 510, Hos 2>^\ Zee 46
9!^ Dt 1716^- (cp. 20I-4), ps 208.— 8. Idols] the word h'h^^ also
occurs in w.^^- 20 loiof- 191- » 3i7 Ezk 30I3, Hab 2^8, Ps 96^
(= I Ch i626) 97^, Lv 19* 26^. It often conveys an unmistakable
suggestion of contempt. The meaning of the word as used by
the prophets is sufficiently indicated by the expressions Wkh ^y"i,
worthless shepherds (Zee ii^^), and h'h^ "'65S1, good-for-nothing
physicians (Job 13*). It is possible that it was originally a
respectable word for gods,t just as D^1D3 must have been for
priests, and that it was the irony of the prophets that associated
it with the adjective ^'h^, worthless (cp. Syr. ^^jJl|), or perchance
the negative h\^, perhaps, too, with a play on fjK, strong] so here,
* Cp. Incantatio, carmen, iiraoiS-^, and see references and illustrations in
J. B. Jevons's Essay, " Graeco-Italian Magic," in Anthropology and the Classics
(ed. R. R. Marett), pp. 94flf., 99 f.
t See BDB.
E
n. 7-^5 55
his land is full, not of strong ones, but of noughts or good-for-
nothings. — The work of his hands . . . that which his fingers
have made] cp. 17®, Hos 13^. — 9. The v. omitted in the transla-
tion above is parallel in sense to v.^^; the last clause seems
corrupt; the first two clauses re-appear in 5^*, whence perhaps
they were transferred to the present passage, in the first instance
as a marginal parallel : see, further, phil. n. — 10. Variants of the
refrain occur in vv.^^ and ^i for which see phil. n. ; on the original
position of the refrain, see above, p. 49. — When Yahweh marches
forth on His day, the earth quakes (Jg 5*), or He comes in the
thunder-storm. If from human enemies men run for safety to
the caves (i S 13^), how much more before this foe! cp. Hos
108. — From before the terror of Yahweh^ and from his glorious
majesty] cp. the expressions of Assyrian conquerors, pul-ha-at
bilii-ti-ia na-mur-rat kakki-ia iz-zu-ti ip-la-hu-ma^ "of the terror
of my lordship, the panic of my mighty weapons they were afraid "
(Shalmaneser, Monolith, ii. 79 = ^^ i. 171); "Him, Hezekiah,
terror of the glory of my lordship (pul-hi mf-lamm{ bilfi-ti-ia)
overwhelmed" (Sennacherib, Taylor Cylinder, iiL 2^ = KB ii.
95)-
12-17. V.^2 states the general theme of the strophe : Yahweh
on His Day will lay low every lofty object, that His own unique
exaltation may appear (v.^^) ; then in detail the prophet pictures
the overwhelming and irresistible might of Yahweh, affecting first
Lebanon (lo^* 148 etc.) and Bashan (33^ n.), laying low the great
and strong trees that cover them iy?^) and the hills themselves
(v.i*), and then the creations of man's pride and confidence —
on land, his citadels and walled cities (v.^^), and on sea, his
ships (v.i^). The line of movement is from the N.E. (Lebanon
N., Bashan E.) : does the prophet think of the Assyrians as
Yahweh's warriors (cp. 10*)? — 15 f. In these verses Isaiah may
have specially in mind, though not exclusively, the towers and
fortifications which Uzziah built and the new sea trade which
resulted from Uzziah's capture of Elath on the Red Sea (2 K
1422). "Moreover Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem over the
corner gate, and over the valley gate, and over the angle (of the
wall), and fortified them," and Jotham " built much on the wall
of Ophel" (2 Ch 26^ 27^; cp. G. A. Smith, Jerusalem^ ii. 119 f.,
125). — 15. Fortified] miVD means cut off, inaccessible, and %o forti-
fied, impregnable (cp. Jer 15^^) : cp. " thy high and fortified walls
56 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
wherein thou trustest"(Dt 28^2) — j^^ Ships of TarshisK\ ships
fit to make the longest voyages, large ships, consequently ships
with lofty masts. The meaning is obvious from the context here
and in some of the other passages where the phrase occurs (23^* ^^
6o9, Ezk 2725, Ps 48^, 2 Ch 921). ffi either transliterates the
proper name (60^), or renders by TrXota Kapx^Sovos (23^* 1*), or, as
perhaps here, by ttAoiov OaXda-a-r]^ (but see £Bi. 4897 n. i); see
also Ezk 27^5. The best identification of Tarshish still seems
to be Tartessus (23^ n.) in Spain — at the remote corner of the
ancient world. — And against all ... ^ the phrase (monn nVSK')
might perhaps (see phil. n.) mean desirable or costly imagery^ but
this does not suit the context, which requires that the phrase
should describe some lofty object; moreover, the analogy of
vv.13-16 suggests that the phrase should describe something closely
resembling, or intimately connected with, large ships. None of
the various suggested renderings of the phrase, as in |^ or
emended, satisfy both these requirements (see phil. n.). — 17. Cp.
v.^*. — 18. But the idols will one and all vanish forms an excellent
antithetical parallel to the third line of v.^^ Yahweh alone will
be exalted', cp. Ps 102^^ heaven and earth vanish (P|7nashere:
also Job 9^6), Yahweh abides.
19. Cp. v.i^, and see phil. n. — When he arises to terrify the
eartK\ pKH py?, ut terreat terram. — Enter into the caves\ so v.^^
®r ; ^ and they shall enter^ which would mean that the idols will
enter into the caves. — 20. An annotation in prose, or, at least, not
in the dominant rhythm of the poem. It explains how the idols
will get into the caves (v.^^ f^). Men perceiving the uselessness
of the idols will throw them away (cp. 30^2 317) to animals that
house in the darkness of caves and holes. — Moles^^ or rats.
The noun mDiDn means literally a much-digging (animal). AV,
RV rightly, though without acknowledgment, abandon the
unintelligible MT (m2 isni)) and follow U talpes.— Bats'] "The
majority of the bats of Palestine (and they are very numerous)
inhabit caves, caverns, tombs, ruins, and disused buildings "
{EBi.). With the standpoint of this annotator, cp. Bar 6'^^^-,
" They are as one of the beams of the temple ; and men say
their hearts are eaten out, when things creeping out of the earth
devour both them and their raiment . . . upon their bodies and
heads alight bats, swallows, and birds ; and in like manner the
cats also. Whereby ye may know that they are no gods." —
II. l6-22 57
21. Either a corrupt variant of vv.^^ and ^^ (Du.), or the annotator
(v.20) has slightly modified the refrain to convey his meaning —
men will cast away the idols so that they, the idols, may find
themselves clefts and crannies (Marti). — 22. A still later annota-
tion,* for, unlike v.^o (21), it is later than ffi, from which the v. is
absent. It is an obvious reflection on the chapter — cease to
place confidence in man (cp. Jer ly^ Ps 1468^-), who is of no
account ; but it is the reflection of some reader possessed of
a roll of the prophet rather than (as Di. suggests) of Isaiah
himself when he put ch. 2 and ch. 3 together. — In whose nostril is
a breathy Cp. Gn 2^ 7^, Job 27^. The breath being given by
God, man lives ; but being withdrawn, he dies (nil, Ps 104^^).
The history of the interpretation of the v. is interesting and explains
the rendering of the H, and consequently of some English versions. Jews,
correctly understanding the clause at what is he accounted to mean that he
is of no worth, referred the passage to Christ. Jerome met this not by
denying the reference to Christ, but by placing on the words atrm noa '3 an
impossible meaning. He points out, correctly, of course, that nD3 may be
pronounced bamma at what, or bamah, which he interprets excelsus (it is, of
course, the (heathen) high place). He renders the whole verse, "Quiescite
ergo ab homine, cuius spiritus in naribus eius : quia excelsus reputatus est
ipse," and comments, "Quisquam ne hominum ita quempiam laudet ut dicat :
cavete ne offendatis eum, qui omnino nihili est? Ergo e contrario sic
intellegendum : Cum haec universa ventura sint vobis, et prophetali spiritu
praedicantur, moneo atque praecipio, ut quiescatis ab eo qui secundum
camem quidem homo est, et habet animam, et ita spirat, et naribus halitum
trahit ut nos homines spiramus et vivimus : sed secundum divinam majestatem
excelsus et est et reputatur et creditur. Tacita mecum mente pertractans, non
possum invenire rationem quare LXX tam perspicuam de Christo prophetiam
in Graecum noluerint vertere. Caeteri enim, qui verterunt quidem, sed
sermonem ambiguum ad impietatis traxere sensum, non mirum cur male
interpretati sint, nee voluerint de Christo gloriosum quid dicere in quern
non credebant : videlicet Judaei aut Semijudaei, id est, Ebionitae."
6. "PV nne'ttj] For the form nnroj, see G-K. 44^. (& (IL) reads 6.vriKev
yip rhv \a.hv airov. It is disputed whether this represents a real Hebrew
variant icy vnni (so Mar. ; cp. Du.) or not (Che. SBOT). (ffir fits the
context better, for nowhere else throughout the entire passage is Yahweh
addressed, except in a probably corrupt clause (v.*). On the other hand, it
is difficult to account for the derivation of |^ from (Ir's reading. If the
stichos be editorial (Che.), ^ may be right ; but if part of the poem, (& is to be
preferred. If the text were substantially correct a suggestion of W. R.
Smith in a letter to Che. {SBOT) would deserve attention; this is, that n
(lost by haplography after rnn') should be prefixed to '3, so as to give a
* So Che. (following Studer : see SBOT), Du., Marti, Cond.
58 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
sentence of the form of Mic 4'' and of the same tenour as Ezk 8^^, Jer 2*, 2 K i*.
— :ip]}'''\ (& 'la-pa-^X. — 1n'?d] (S iveirkijadr), i.e. n'?D or rather hnSd, since (K
read iJjnN after Dipo. — DipD] (& ws rb aw' dpxrjs (cp. U2r<S) perhaps freely for
|§, or reading DnpD3 ; after dpxv^, (Sc continues i) X'^P^ airruv (^ p3j;nN)=i2i"iJ<
(cp. V.'), and then for D'Jjyi has KKTjdovia-fiQv, i.e. D'JJJ? without the waw.
Apparently, then, ffi's Hebrew text read D'33y "udk DipD2 nN^D »a ; this is
probably nearer at least to the original text than |§ MT, which arose from
the accidental loss of {'nx in D'iiyisnx and the subsequent change of hnVd
into IN^D. If CEr read mpD3, the 3 also dropped out. But <& even is
scarcely the original text. Possibly mpD3 is a corrupt dittograph of hn^ds.
This would leave a better sentence than |^, but substantially the same sense :
their land is full of enchanters like the Philistines. If the allusion to
enchanters is rightly suspected (see comm.), we may conjecture that D'^ay is an
error for D':y33, traffickers ; by also omitting D'nty^SD we should obtain, finally,
a line not only parallel to the probable sense of, but rhythmically equal to,
ip'SB>» 0^33 *nVui. That the clauses D'nB''?S3 D'jjyi mpo ikVd o are in some
measure corrupt is generally admitted ; the emendation most usually adopted,
since the time of Lowth, has been the insertion of DopD or 'Dop or D'DDp before
mpD, or the substitution of one of these words for onpo ; but there are serious
objections to this widely accepted emendation: (i) in'7D with a personjil
subject and a personal object is improbable ; (2) the emendation fails to
explain (K, and falls to the ground if fir's text, which contains an object tor
"ikVd, be correct ; (3) wvmh^z D'33in is left awkwardly limping, if a second
object of in'?d, and inelegant, though abstractly possible (Dr. § 135 (6)), if it
be a new predicate ; (4) DTity^SD . . . ikSd '3 is too long for one line, somewhat
too short for two, and if two lines, the following line is left isolated. — D'jajn]
if the text be correct (but see last n. ), D'Jay is Poel part, without the performa-
tive D, as in Jer 27* ; G-K. 52^. — ip'sr* Dn33 n'?'3i] w-oi nS', if the text is
correct, must be a unique variant of 133 'J3 or Dn33 ; it scarcely means
young foreigners {T)!.). Hitz. proposed *n'? for n^-3. Thevb. pats", to suffice,
occurs once in the ICal in a North Palestinian source (i K 20^"), and the noun
pHJC, sufficiency y in Job 20^ j the vb. also occurs in the late Heb. of Ecclus.
(3933 (Kal), 39^* 42" (Hiph.)), and pBD is common in Aramaic. The use by
Isaiah of a vb. with such a history is not very probable, though it was natural
for (& to assume its use. It is safer to suppose that pssr here = pSD (G-K.
6k) ; this (with D'S3) means to strike hands (in anger, Nu 24^", or mockery,
La 2^*, Job 27^) ; cp. /jji-j, and the citation by Lane {Arab. Diet. 1373)
of the tradition ** ^yu!i\ ^ xIAmJI means the striking of hands of the
contracting parties on the occasion of selling and buying in token of ratifica-
tion thereof in the markets. ^^ Unless we adopt Hitz.'s emendation we
must suppose that pi5r(r») is here a breviloquence for D'S3 pSB'(n), cp. ypn,
Pr 11^'*= 13 ypn, Pr 17^^ 22^, and the alternative expressions iJu /ii-tfj
i Jo . ^ ip^y ^^^ (S^*^ (Lane, p. 17CX)), meaning to strike hands in
concluding a bargain: cp. also djii*^, (i) a striking of the hands, (2)
a contract, — The most suspicious thing in the present text is the prep. 3 : we
■
II. 6-i8 59
should rather expect h or Dy.— 7. h r\)ip pni] Nah 2".— 8. D'S'^k wtk kSdhi]
very probably a parallel line has fallen out : Du. suggests vnaity^ n:tp pKi. —
nnnr'] read ninnt?% note vt : otherwise explain by G-K. 145m. — 9. oriH ne"i
□nV Hvn ^Ki r'K "^B^'i] a«^ j<7 mankind is bowed down and man humbled:
the consequences of v.^ though actually appertaining to the future, are
described as though they had already ensued (Dr. 7>«j« ', p. 94) : and {there-
fore) do thou (Yahweh) not forgive them^ a poetical way of expressing — and
therefore shall they not be forgiven (Dr. § 57). So with some ingenuity, but
without probability, ^ may be explained. It is difficult to believe that
yy 9. ii». b are anything but corrupt variants of the refrain which occurs in
nearly its original form in vv."* ^^. Yet another variant probably occurs in
5^' : there the first four words are as here, but instead of the almost certainly
corrupt on*? Kirn Vki, 5^" has r\htx;T\ D'n33 'ryi. For KB'n, ffi has dj'ij(rw =
KBfK. — 10. The refrain occurs with variants in v.^' : it is improbable that the
rhythmical dissimilarity of the two occurrences of the refrain is original ; since
the rhythm was probably 3 : 3, restore nnyo (or rnpa, cp. v.^i) and ni'?nD as
in v.". Moreover, read ik3 (ffi : cp. v.^*) for ku and "UDon for pen : in v.^^
supply from here udb.t before ni'?nD. At the end of the v. (K read pyS iDipa
pK as in vv.^*' 2^ |^. — IJIKJ nnno] for similar combinations of synonyms,
cp. Ps 145'- ^' : J. Kennedy proposes uikj m-inp (cp. i S 14^°) : unnecessary ;
see Che. SBOT.—ii, '*?sv mnaj 'ry] G-K. 146a: but the text is probably
corrupt. See on v.*. — Kinn dv3] rhythmically redundant and probably an
editorial addition ; but the refrain should be completed as in "'• by restoring
here iflSn' S'^a O'V'Vk.ti. — 12. hsm] (& kuI /xerioipop Kal raireiPud'^ovTcUf of
which the first two words = ?ii9i or a word of a similar sense. The parallel
suggests that this was right ; xal rair. rendered Van after it had come into
the text. — 13. D'Krjfn D'cnn] Sta., Marti omit: the words are rhythmically
redundant and they weaken the sense, for cedars of Lebanon being the tallest
of their kind need no epithet (cp. ** ships of Tarshish" without epithet).
x6. monrr nvar] mon means that which is desirable, or, by a slight and
easy transference of meaning, precious, costly (see 2 Ch 36^'* "all the costly
furniture " of the temple ; cp. Hag 2'). But the art. is suspicious : ct. '^3
mon regularly : possibly monn as well as nrar is corrupt. The idea of
desirableness or costliness does not elsewhere in this strophe interrupt the
monotonous expression of the idea of loftiness. t\V2V together with nioro,
the only other derivative of the root found in OT (see Nu 33'^i n.), is
explained by the Aram. K3D, to look out, look for, expect. Meanings that
have been su^ested are imagery (EV : cp. noB'D in Nu. ; and (& here koI ivl
iracrav diav ir\oi(av KciWovs), watch towers (? & i^OJ, Ew., RVmsirg.), ^ags
(of ships as being conspicuous ; Ges. Thes. ). Other renderings presumably
based on the text, but either questionable, or paraphrastic, are palaces (^), H
^uod visu pulchrum est (for both words). The most interesting emendation
suggested in m3'BB'=n3'SD (Jon i''), ships (Siegfried-Stade) ; while Bennett
(see BDB, s.v.) and others have suggested that rwyo itself may have been
a term for a particular kind of ship: cp. Che. in SBOT, who ultimately
prefers to read monn niKOD ; both emendations half, but only half, meet the
case (see comm. above). — 18. '^xv S'hz D'S^SK.ni] exactly equal rhythmically
to the first two lines of v.^'^ and also to the last line, if we omit KVin era as
60 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
editorial. Restore iKa I3^n' (Marti) ; this gives at once the pi. vb. required
after D''?''?Nn (cp. CBr KaTaKp6\pov<nv) and the imper. at the beginning of
v.^^ corresponding to v.^". '?''?3 is ace. (cp. G-K. Ii8, 5) in entirety, all
together, one and all ; cp. \xJ-^s>- />wljO^ as a variant on /juwlJo^ %.^j<a>^-
( Wright, Ar. Gram. ii. 82^), and, e.g., lx^/«.5»- St^^' ^^ forth all together
(Kor. 4, 73), lx>^5»- L-xi ^^j^Ss ^J^ i<-^*^' ^'^^^^ *^^y ^^^^^ ^^^
have entered therein [ib. 6, 36). — 20. itJ'J?] subj., ace. to Hitz., Di., is they, viz.
the craftsmen : improbable. Either VT has dropped out (cp. 31'), or the vb.
was sing. — rway, scarcely IB'V (Lag., Du.) with retention of the original 3rd
radical (cp. G-K. TSb). (& also has no equivalent for i*?. — nns nsn*?] the
correct Massoretic text, though a few Hebrew MSS have gone back to the
original reading of ^ nnsisn?. fflr (rots /naraiois) clearly read one word
only : so Thcod. 0a/)^a/9c«;^. For meanings that have been suggested for the
impossible nns nan*?, see Ges., Di. ; for the nominal form msisn, G-K. 84^. —
22. JO 1*?^] So with different nuances, Ex 14^^ i S 9^ Pr 23*, Job 7^*, 2 Ch
35^^ — asyna] with gerundive force, G-K. 116^.— noa] upretii-. G-K. 119/.
III. I-15.
This section has been commonly regarded as a single con-
tinuous whole. More probably, as Du. has suggested, it consists
of two poems, (i) vv.^"^^^ (2) w.^^'^*^; the first has been enlarged
by the incorporation of notes and parallels, the second perhaps
lacks its conclusion.
The reasons for supposing that there are two poems here
are briefly these : (1) v.^^ constitutes an obviously suitable
commencement of a poem ; (2) the attitude towards the rulers in
vv.^'^ and v.^* is different ; the point of the former verses is that
the rulers are to be removed, and that their removal will cause
the fall of the state, the point of the latter that the conduct of
the rulers has brought Yahweh to judgment; (3) a marked
difference of rhythm and structure.
In vv.^"^* a consistent rhythm is very clearly maintained (3 : 3) and in
three out of the four couplets the lines are parallel in sense ; in vv.^"^^
no single rhythm is maintained throughout in the present text, but the
dominant rhythm is 3 : 2 ; see v.^ (to njyu'Di, two distichs), v.** (two distichs),
v.* (to Ssj) ; v.* is ambiguous — 3 : 2 (MT) or 3 : 3. Another good 3 : 2
distich may be obtained by transposing '• and reading \"ii^ 'JD'B'n'KV
vfin r\''r\^-vh \ Dy. The interruption of the 3 : 2 rhythm may be partly, or
entirely, due to textual corruption and interpolation ; but whether this
be so or not, there is certainly but little of the rhythm and parallelistic
i^
II. 20-22 AND III. T-15 61
structure of w.^" invv.*'"; it appears only in v.'^ and possibly also v.* ;
yy 10. n clivide into periods of three accents, but the periods of parallelism
are 6 : 6. Thus, judged by rhythm alone, v.^- might go with vv.'^"*°;
but if 1"^' is not continuous, the new start in vJ^ obviously marks the main
division.
III. 1-12. — A Prophecy of Anarchy in Judah.
Rhythm. — Irregular, but in vv.^"® the distichs shown in the translation are
mostly 3 : 2, in ***"" they are 6 : 6. See more fully just above.
1 For behold the Lord
Yahweh of Hosts
Is removing from Jerusalem and Judah
Staff and stay.
^ The whole staff of bread and the whole staff of water. The mighty man
and the warrior, the judge and the prophet and the diviner and the
elder ; * the captain of fifty and the man of repute and the counsellor
and the skilled in magic arts and the expert in charms.
* And I will give youths to be their captains,
And caprice shall rule over them ;
* And the people shall tyrannise man over man,
Yea, each one over his neighbour;
The youth shall act rudely towards the old man,
And the lightly esteemed towards the highly respected.
* When a man shall lay hold on his fellow,
In whose father's house is a mantle (saying,)
Come, thou shalt bei our ruler.
And this ruin shall be under thine hand,
7 He shall make utterance in that day, saying,
I will not be a binder up,
For in my father's house there is no bread,
And there is no mantle;
Ye shall not make me ruler of the people;
* For Jerusalem hath stumbled.
And Judah hath fallen;
For their tongue and their deeds are against Yahweh,
(?) Provoking the eyes (?) of His glory.
Their partiality hath witnessed against them.
And they have given evidence of their sin like Sodom
^ without concealing ought.
62 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Woe to themselves, for they have done themselves harm.
10 ' Happy is ' the righteous, for he is fortunate : for they
eat the fruit of their doings.
11 Woe to the unrighteous : he is unfortunate : for the
dealing of his hands is done unto him.
12 The taskmasters of my people deal cruelly,
And exactors of usury rule them.
O my people, thy guides mislead.
And confound the way of thy paths.
The main theme of the foregoing verses is as follows :
Yahweh is on the point of removing from Judah all those who
give stability to the state by the discharge of civil or military
duties, or by advice. All effective administration will then come
to an end, violence will pervail, age and character will no longer
command respect, and, even if appealed to, men of standing and
substance will refuse to act as leaders. This imminent and cer-
tain collapse of the state (vv.i^'^) is Yahweh's judgment on His
people for evil ways and unblushing sins (vv.^*).
As a matter of fact this theme is exhausted in w. *"•*», and indeed is
sufficiently presented in the rhythmically similar distichs (3 : 2) within
vv.^'*. Vv.*' **"^2 may be sayings that had at one time another setting.
The last clauses of v.^ have been generally, and rightly, regarded as
a gloss (see below): and some (cp. Che. Introd. 17) consider that the
catalogue in vv.***, which seems to be in prose, has been interpolated or at
least expanded.
For all that is known the main theme of vv.i*^ might have
been handled at many periods of Isaiah's life. The argumient
drawn from vv.*- 1^ that these verses were written in anticipation,
or at the beginning, of the reign of Ahaz, is very precarious (see
comm.); and not much less so Hackmann's argument (p. 122)
that the wickedness of which Isaiah speaks must have been
long observed by him and in vain denounced, to account for his
certainty of ruin.
I. For\ the ^3 links 3I-15 to 26^- (Marti), or 222 (DL), but is
perhaps editorial, and was possibly absent from the text of ffi
(see phil. n.). — The Lord Yahweh of Hosts] i^* n.^Jerusalem
and JudaK\ cp. ii n. — Staff and stay] all means of support
whatsoever, all "pillars of the state" (cp. 191^, Jg 20^, i S 14^^
Zee 10*): EV by its alliteration happily secui^ some similarity
in. 1-3 63
to the original (see phil. n.). — "Staff and stay" appears to
receive two explications : first, in the clause every staff of bread
and every staff of water^ it is interpreted of what supports
physical life ; the removal or breaking of such a staff means
famine, see Lv 2626, Ezk 4^^ 5^^ 14^3 (where staff vs, ntOD, not ^ma).
Since there is no further suggestion of famine (except, at most
subsidiarily, in v.'), but the entire prophecy turns on the removal
of the staff 2iS next explained, this clause is generally considered
to be a gloss supplied by a reader who was familiar with Ezekiel,
and who saw in the present passage a prophecy of the famine that
accompanied the Fall of Jerusalem in 586.'* — 2. 3. An enumera-
tion of typical pillars of state, — military, judicial, religious ; vv>^-
the social disorder and confusion which follows when every such
staff and stay (v.^) is removed. The pillars of state are enumer-
ated mostly in pairs, but in a curious order, or lack of order ; v.^
contains a second and similar series rather than a continuation of
the series begun in v.^, yet scarcely of less important though
similar officials (Di.), for the classes mentioned second and third in
v.^ are certainly important Further, the enumeration is of persons
whom the prophet's audience accounted sources of strength:
" diviners " and " charmers " could never have appeared such to
Isaiah himself, and indeed his fundamental thought here as in ch. 2
is that Yahweh alone is the true strength of Judah j in alienating
Him and thus losing His support, the people work their own fall
and ruin (v.^). — The mighty man and the man of war'] cp. Ezk
3920 where the prefixing of " all " to the second term (nonfe \i^Vi)
suggests that the first (lUi) denotes the soldier under some
aspect ot superiority, whether the veteran or soldier in command
(Di.), or the soldier by profession, Berufsoldat (Ges-B.), a
member of the bodyguard as distinguished from the man who
simply takes to arms in time of war (cp. 2 S 23^, Jer 5^^). In
view of such passages as i S 16^^ 17^^, 2 S 17^, the distinction,
if it ever existed apart from the suggestion of the context, was
scarcely well-marked. — The diviner] the term DDp denotes a
person who obtained information by divination, as, for example,
by drawing lots with arrows (Ezk 21 26^- (21^-))^ the practice is
directly or tacitly condemned whenever it is referred to in OT
(cp. e.g. Dt iS^o^-). See fuller notes in Numbers^ 329, 355. — 3,
Captain of fifty] may be intended to refer typically to petty
*So, or substantially so, Ges., Hitz., Di., Che., Du., Cond., Marti.
64 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
military officers : or possibly f^ should be differently punctu-
ated and the term rendered " captain of the armed men " (see
phil. n.). — The man of repute] lit. he whose face is lifted up (xi{}':
D'^JQ), the person whose reputation rests on actual achievement
rather than on mere occupation of office ; cp. 2 K 5^ Naaman
not only held high office, but enjoyed a high repute because of
his victories over Israel; the phrase also occurs in 9^*, Job 22^
(II jmt B^''K). — The counsellor] an important person — see i^e 95
19^1, Mic 4®, Job 3^* 12^'^. — The skilled in magic arts] so with
RVmarg. rather than the cunning artificer or craftsman^
see phil. n. — The expert in charms] or, more literally, he that
has understanding of whispering charms ; the adjectives (D3n,
J133) used in the two parallel clauses are frequently combined
(Gn 4188.39 Dt lis 48, I K 3^2). The noun ^rh, starting from the
sense of whisperings found in the vb. in 2 S 12^^, Ps 41', and
in Aram, and Eth., came to be used specifically of the speech of
the serpent-charmer (Ec lo^^ cp. Ps 58®), and then, as apparently
here, more widely of charms or spells (cp. 320).
4. And I will make youths their captains] the sudden intro-
duction between w.^"8 and w.^*^* of Yahweh speaking in the first
person is strange : the v. is possibly not in its original position
(see above). — Captain] "IK^ as in v. 2. — And caprice shall rule
them] abstract for concrete — capricious persons. The kind of
conduct intended by D^i^li^yn is illustrated less by the only other
occurrence of the noun (66*) than by some uses of the vb.
(i'i?ynn), which means to treat some one (maliciously) y^r one's own
pleasure, with the result that they are made to look ridiculous, or
lose character (Nu 2 2^9, Ex 10*, i S 6*, Jg 19^). The noun seems
to denote here the habit of mind that leads to action guided
by no sound or grave reason. — If this v. stands in its original
position, it repeats the thought of vv.^' 8 under another form.
" In removing the elders he virtually makes youths captains over
them " (Di.). The terms are quite general, and there is no good
reason for detecting, as many do, a specific allusion to Ahaz, who
succeeded to the throne in 735 B.a at the age of twenty (2 K 16*);
and if there were any such allusion, it would be to the prospect
(Che. Introd, 18 f.) of such a succession, not (as Del. and others
assume) to the actual reign of Ahaz : the tenses in vv.^*** naturally
refer to the future. — 5. Political and moral anarchy. Respect
for the old is a duty coupled in Lv 1 9^2 with the fear of God.
III. 6-8 65
6-8. In this condition of things, when the state is obviously
falling to pieces, authority and leadership will no longer be
desired, but will be refused even by those upon whom it is
thrust. — When a man lays hold on his clansman in whose father's
house is a mantle {saying), Come] the words may also be trans-
lated, When a man lays hold on his clansman in his father's house
(saying), Thou hast a mantle : the first translation is supported
by the reply in my father's house there is . . . no mantle (v.^). —
Clansman] not brother in the limited English sense of the word,
for note his (not, their) father, and below (v.^ my (not, our). —
In his father's house] if this be the right translation (see above),
the suggestion is that in this evil time men keep at home and
need to be dragged into public (cp. Am ^^). Does it also
imply that the man addressed is a person of family who lives in
his own ancestral home ? Or should we draw just the opposite
conclusion, viz. that authority goes begging (cp. 4^) to the
lower classes, to those who are singled out by the mere
possession of a mantle? Or is mantle here a robe of office,
and the meaning : you belong to a family which has furnished
officers of state?* — This ruin] the overthrown mass {rh^'2'0T\)
caused by the fall of the state (cp. min^ rh^2, \.^). — Under thy
hand] or authority: cp. Gn 16^ and (n^ nnn») Ex i8i<>. The
phrase is parallel to thou shall be ruler in the previous line :
cp. " Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah and made a
king over themselves," 2 K S^o. — 7, A binder up] of wounds or
fractures received by the state in its fall (ni»65^3D, v.* : ni^K'a, v.^) ;
cp. I* 30^8, Hos 6^. — 8. The reason for the imminent and, as
the prophetic perfects in line a imply, certain fall of the state is
the opposition of the people to Yahweh in both word and deed.
On the strange style of line b, see phil. n. — 9. Their partiality]
lit. their regard for faces, viz. in dispensing justice. This is
certainly the most obvious interpretation ; f it assumes that the
nominal phrase Dn^ja mDn follows the meaning of D^:a Tan in
Dt ii7 i6i», Pr 2423 2821. On the ground that the entire people
rather than the judicial class alone is here condemned many
consider the interpretation unsuitable, and rather hazardously
propose either (i) the show (or, appearance) of their faces, % or
the examination of their faces \ or (2) their impudence '.% but
• Marti. t QTS, RVmarg., Du., Marti, Che.
t Di., AV, Ges., Del., Cond. § Joseph Kimhi, Di.
VOL. I.— 5
66
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
4
A
(2) assumes that man is from V"i3n (Job 19^!), itself of most
uncertain meaning (BDB); cp. (& ala-xvvq. Some such
meaning as the last would no doubt give a good parallel to the
following line, and would be acceptable if it were philologically
better supported : the whole v. would then mean : they are
shameless as the men of Sodom in their sin. ||h
pc, 10, II. General moral reflections. — "The connec-
tion is certainly rather loose and . . . Isaiah is here merely
putting together in writing leading ideas of prophecy" (Di.);
but the sayings may be later than the age of Isaiah, and probably
are if Du. is right, as he well may be, in detecting here (ct vv.^"^)
a well-marked doctrine of individual retribution, and in the
righteous and the unrighteous the pious observer and the
careless disregarder of the Law respectively. — ii. The dealing
of his hands'] Jg 9^^, Pr 12^^ : for the idea that as a man deals he
is dealt with, see 33^ (of nations).
12. Misgoverned and misled. — The first distich describes
the pitiable state of Yahweh's people due to the cruelties of
severe rulers and money-lenders (€r), or to the caprice of
incompetent rulers — boys (cp. v.*) and women (MT, EV).
Those who adopt the latter interpretation find an allusion here
to Ahaz and his harem. Here as in v.* Yahweh is the speaker,
and, as probably there, the rhythm (3 : 3) is unlike that which
most prevails in vv.^"^. Unlike v.* which predicts, this distich
describes an existing state of things. — c. d. The change from the
3rd pers. of description to the 2nd of address suggests that the
two couplets of v.^2 may come from different poems. A variant
of this one occurs, probably out of place, in 9^^
I. njn '3]®r ^5oi> 5i^, possibly =r\zr\ without 'r, cp. 22" 10^ and also 13^
62^^ where 7\v\ is rendered t5oi> 7(i/). — TDD . . . r\ir\'\ of the imminent future :
Dr- § 13s (S)- — '"'"'''''''O"' d'?«!'ttd] in ®r (except B) the order is reversed : cp. i^
2^ in 1^ ; but ct. 3^ both <& and |^. — rcyts-Di jycj-D] masc. and fem. forms
combined to exhaust an idea : see Kon. iii. 91, who cites Nah 2^^, Ex 35"^,
Is 11^^, 2 8 19^^ and Ges. on this passage, who cites Arabic examples, such as
i ^ ^. -^1 <y \^y he has neither male nor female sheep y i.e. nothing at
all. Neither njytfD nor (thus pointed) jy^'D occurs again : with jy^p (cstr. ),
cp. 2 S 22^^=Ps iS^^t- — 'j'^i . . . *?3] ®r omits '?3 in both clauses.— 2. ni2J]
ffi •^i'^o.vra. KoX laxiovTo., scarcely a real variant, but the last two words in ffi
may be a dittograph from v.^, or a doublet. — 3. D'B'Dn ne'] the versions
anticipate the D>"pq of MT with which Haupt {SBOT) compares the Assyr.
rob ^anJa. Che. (after Sta.) points DToq the armed men\ for D'if'Dn, see
III. I-I2 6^
Ex 13^', Jos i^* 4^', Jg 7", and cp. Ges-B." pp. 239^, 240a, with references
there given. — j'yvi D'js kw3i] ffi koX dav/xaffrbv <t6(jl§ovKov (ep. 9') : instead of
the two terms of J^, (K probably had but one : we should perhaps omit {'jn'i (Gun.
in Sievers), then v.* would consist of pairs of grammatically symmetrical terms ;
it cannot safely be claimed (Marti) that (& omits D'jb Kirji, for cp. redavfioff-
fi4voi irpo<rdy!r(p = 's Kirj in 2 (4) K 5^ — D'tenn cam] H sapientem de architectis^
and, but that the superlative would be out of place, ^ might certainly mean
the cunningest craftsman (G-K. 133^, //). But the gen. is rather that of
improper annexion (G-K. \2&x) and D't^nn pi. of an assumed sing, enn,
meaning crafts^ handiwork (cp. EV), or, more probably, in view of the
following clause, magic arts : cp. «.^;_k», to practise magic, see, further, BDB.
—4. □'^i'?vn] abstract pi. ; G-K. 85^. — 5. b33i] generally taken to be Niphal,
with reciprocal sense (G-K. ^id) of baj, to drive (to work : 58^), be a task-
master (cp. Ex 3') or a ruler, especially a foreign or oppressive ruler (9' 14*).
The Niph. with a different force occurs in 53'^, i S 13^ (? 14*^*). b>J3 read by
8 MSS is not preferable. The Versions read differently or rendered inade-
quately— (JR KoX a-vfiveaeiTai, % pnjn'i, Sh ^-2U0. — 6. nxin rhv^Qrci] (&
apparently read '9^5«i?i — wrong ; note uV, plural suf., in the previous clause. —
naS] either ^ + 2nd sing. m. suff. as in Gn 27^, 2 S 18^ (G-K. I03^and9ifl0>
or 2nd sing. impr. of iSn with emphatic ending (G-K. 48/). — 8. nnD'?]=nnDn'?
(G-K. 53^), but many of the alleged instances of this syncope are questionable,
mo, to be contentious, rebellious {towards), is commonly used either absolutely
or with a personal, or virtually personal (rm), object, or with an ace. signifying
a command : 'jy if='3'y is a strange object for the vb. The sentence uiveh "2
. . . ni33 'jy is rhythmically overloaded and awkward, whether with Di. we
interpret their tongue and their deeds are in relation to Yahweh of such a
kind that they must provoke, etc., or with Du. al. assume that Vk stands for
Sy. (ffir renders koX al '{KOxraai airuv fierk dvofdas, rd irpbs Kjjpiov dTreidovvres.
5i6ti vvv iTaireivudi) ij 56^a airwv, which may point to the presence between
niToS and 'jy of some letters now lost in |^ (cp. &tlL). For 'jy, C& probably
read m];, & py; neither variant is preferable to J^ or supports Gratz's
conjecture '3£3. The scriptio defectiva 'jy for 'J'y (read by a few Heb. MSS) is
suspicious, though it occurs in Phoenician : see Lidzbarski, NSE 339, Eph.
i. 158. — 10. 31D '3 p'"i)t noK] awkward, even if '3 is = 3rt recitative (BDB
471^ bottom), pns subj. of 3ia prefixed for emphasis (cp. Gn i82<', Dt3i^,
Mic 5*), and 3io means fortunate, prosperous (Jer 44^", Ps 112'^) — Say ye
the righteous is fortunate. Lowth, al. read 'ttk for noK, which makes 310 '3
rather superfluous. (K renders curiously or from a fuller text dirbvTt^
A-f{(ru)fJLev (Wis 2^^ ''EvedpeCaw/j.ev) rbv SUaiov, 8ti Sycxpijcrroj ijfjuv iariv. —
11. y> yvh '1k] rather awkward whether vvh be connected with 'ik or with
ri.— 12. ^'?iyD] " hh^V 1D3," ^fi. ; but there is no other instance of '?'?iyD for the
frequently occurring hhVt child. This interpretation is as ancient as Symm.,
and has been adopted by a stream of interpreters since ; a slight variation of it
Is obtained by treating SViyo as part. Poel of an otherwise unknown denom.
vb. from VSiy, child, meaning to cut the child (BDB "jSob). W. R. Smith
cited by Che. (SBOT) attempted to obtain a less questionable basis for this
interpretation by emending '?'?iyD vvii into ^Siy crjj. In spite of the lack of
68
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
^S^^^K
an expressed object it is more probable that f?'?iyD is part. Poel of SVy, to
glean (ffilTS', Aq., Theod., U spoiiaverunt), or to act with severity towards
(Marti, Cond.). For the sing. pred. distributing the pi. subj. (Vb'jj), see, e.g.y
Gn 272" and, further, G-K. 145/. Others take vb'jj as //. majestatis (G-K.
I24>&), referring to a single person. — D'ty:] (R, Aq. 01 dirairoOi'Tes, ® Nmn 'td,
Theod. daveia-ral, i.e. D^a (so Houb., Marti, Cond.); % \-m^,'ff mu/ieres,
i.e. D';^: — MT, Rashi, Ki., and most moderns. — T^nntt im] the expression
is curious : but fflr scarcely suggests a real variant (T^JT 'n), and Cheyne's
omission of inT on rhythmical grounds is very unsafe in view of the varieties of
rhythm in the chapter : |^ is an excellent balanced distich. — "I'nn-jN] for Tnn")K
— lengthened vowel due to t and the counter tone : Sta. 109. — iy'?3] by a bold
figure, paths, of which all trace had been obliterated, might perhaps have been
described as swallowed up. But we may infer that yVa, to swallow up,
developed, or a distinct root (allied to V71) furnished, the meaning to confuse^
confound, see 28' g^^ j^s^ pg 1072? 5510 ; Barth, Beitrdge, 4f.
III. 13-15. — A Judgment Scene,
M
The rhythm is 3 : 3 ; in three of the four distichs the lines are parallel
in sense. The concluding formula is a monostich of three accents.
18 Yahweh is taking his stand to plead,
And is standing to judge 'his people*;
1* Even Yahweh will enter into judgment
With the elders and princes of his people.
"And ye, ye have depastured the vineyard.
What ye have plundered from the poor is in your
houses :
" What mean ye that ye crush my people,
And grind the faces of the poor?" ^
Is the oracle of the Lord Yahweh of Hosts.
The prophet sees Yahweh in the act (2V3, ^oy, participles^
Dr. § 135) of taking up His position as judge (v.^^); so far it is
the fact that a judgment scene is opening that the order of the
words emphasises. But in v.^* the emphasis changes : it is on
the judge ; it is none other than Yahweh who comes, and He
comes to call to account the rulers of His people. Then in vv.^**'- <*
15a. b He lays the charge which opens with effective abruptness —
and ye — ye rulers, the very persons appointed to protect the
poor — ye have robbed and wronged them.
The more elaborate judgment scene of Mic 6^ opens also
more elaborately. Cp., too, the opening of the judgment scene
of Ps 82.
III. I3-IV. I 69
13. His people] so rightly ffi ; cp. v.^*; "^peoples^ which Du.
explains, unsatisfactorily, of the Hebrew tribes ; the reading has
rather arisen from the desire to turn the particular judgment of
Israel into a world judgment. — 14. The elders] representatives
of the families, survivals from the earlier clan-constitution of
IsraeL — The princes] the officials of the royal government. — Ye
have depastured the vineyard] perhaps a proverbial expression
(Du.) : if the vineyard were used figuratively of the Hebrew
people or state, perhaps we should have had my vineyard (so ffi).
In either case the meaning is — instead of tending the vineyard, as
true guardians should have done, so that the shoots of the vines
should not be eaten off by intruding animals, they have used it
recklessly for their own immediate profit (cp. v.^**^) by letting loose
their own animals to eat it down. — Grind the faces] the verb JPID
is commonly used of grinding corn between the mill-stones. —
The poor] here plural, in v.^* singular collective.
14. DnKi] cp. '3K1, Ps 2*. — omya] cp. nya in 5* where the parallel odtd and
the context (cp. 5' n. ) suggest that "lya refers to destruction by animals (cp.
Ex 22* ?). Depasture may be a specific development of the meaning exter-
minate (4* n. 6", Nu 24^), or "lya, to depasture, may have been originally a
distinct root; see, further, Addenda.— rhii] G-K. 95A. —'jyn rhn} plunder
taken from the poor ; cp. T3'K ^^r, spoil taken from thine enemies^ Dt 20^* j
G-K. 128^.-05^5] G-K. yjc.—i^, rmyi . . . ow] (!R omits.
III. 16-IV. I, — The Doom of the Ladies of Jerusalem.
The lines in most of these distichs are parallel in sense, but the rhythm
varies : in 3^"' 4^ and probably in 3* also (note the tQ\\ovc\g parallelism) it is
still predominantly and was once perhaps exclusively, an echoing rhythm ;
but the lines balance (3 : 3 or 4 : 4) in '^' * ^6 certainly, and in 3=^* •» if
n'.T) be disregarded and n'n»"pD makkephed : so also, if these verses be not
prose, in "^^^ and in 3*, if TiniaJi be read as two accents (Sievers).
^^ Because they are haughty —
The daughters of $ion,
And go with outstretched necks,
And ogling with their eyes;
Yea, go tripping ever as they go,
And jingling with their feet:
^^ The Lord shall smite with a scab the scalps of the
daughters of §ion.
And Vahweh shall lay bare their shame (?).
70
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
^® In that day the Lord will turn away the finery of the anklets and the
net-bands (?) and the moons, ^' the ear-rings and the bracelets and the veils,
^ the head-dresses and the armlets and the sashes and the perfume-boxes and
the charms, ^^ the signet-rings and the nose-rings, ^ the state-gowns and the
mantles and the shawls and the satchels (?), *^ the diaphanous garments and
the linen garments and the turbans and the large veils. ^^ And it shall come
to pass.
Instead of perfume there shall be rottenness,
And instead of a girdle a rope ;
And instead of workmanship of hair well dressed (?), baldness
And instead of a rich dress girding of sackcloth,
Branding instead of beauty.
25 Thy men shall fall by the sword,
And thy mighty in the battle.
26 Its gates shall mourn and lament,
And it shall be clean empty sitting on the ground.
dness,
4^ And seven women shall lay hold
On a single man in that day,
Saying, We will eat our own bread,
And wear our own mantle :
Only be thy name called over us;
Take away our reproach.
The ladies of Jerusalem, who now spend their days walking
about the city, casting wanton looks, and calling attention to
themselves, will be smitten with unclean disease and exposed to
insult (vv.^6^-) ; they will be deprived of all their choice clothing,
perfumes, amulets, and knick-knacks (w.^^-^s) ; instead they will
become offensive, will feceive coarse clothing and turn bald
(v.^"*) : in the city, which will have lost its men in battle (v.^^)
and be lying empty and desolate (v.^^), seven women will think
themselves fortunate if they can find a single man to take them
into his possession without providing them with either food or
clothing.
The fates of the women are alternatives: for the seven
women of 4^ are scarcely the leprous women of 3^^.
Possibly these alternatives did not originally appear in the same poem.
Rhythmical differences in 3^^-4^ have been pointed out above. There are
other features that throw doubt on the unity, or completeness, of the passage ;
in V.25 there is a very sudden address to a city, presumably Sion ; in v.^^ the
III. I6-IV. 1 71
city is spoken of in the 3rd pers. ; if vv.*'* really led up to 4*, neither the
loss of men nor the emptiness of the city must be taken absolutely. V.^
might be a development of v." though it is rhythmically different from w.^'*- ;
but if it is, the catalogue of w.^^'^s «« completely conceals the close connection
between v." and v.'*" (Cheyne). In the catalogue, note the use of the article
21 times, and ct. the anarthrous nouns in v.**. It is also claimed that the
catalogue "displays an attention to trifles which is out of character with
Isaiah, who in his description selects representative features (see, e.g.^ 9** "),
and abstains from giving exhaustive catalogues (ct. Ezk 27)." On the other
hand. Gun. sees in the "jaw-breaking" (Zungenbrecherische) list (Sievers)
an expression of the prophet's anger (cp. Whitehouse). Du., Che., Marti,
Box attribute vv.^^"^* to "the inveterate editorial habit of supplementing,'
and treat vv.'^'* as a misplaced fragment of an elegy ; this leaves, as a single
poem in denunciation of the women, 3^'** ^ 4^. Possibly, if the unity of the
passage is abandoned, and it is difficult to defend it, 3^"' is a little poem by
itself : it would be quite complete, and as long as some of the shorter and
earlier suras of the ^oran ; 3^* is not in the same rhythm, and, perhaps, not
even 4^. Another possibility is that lines have been lost (between w.*** **• ^)
and others mutilated.
There is little to determine the date of this passage: in
specially denouncing women (cp. 32^-), Isaiah follows Amos
(4^*^'); and the picture of the women in search of a husband
(4^) may have been written about the same time as its companion
— the men in search of a ruler (3*"^). Du. suggests that ^^' is
too elegiac in tone to be Isaiah's.
16. And Yahweh said] these words were probably prefixed
by an editor * who wished to indicate the commencement of a
new poem, and overlooked the fact that the prophet, not Yahweh
(cp. v.^^), is the speaker. — Haughty] n23, to be highy acquired the
meaning to be proud^ set up^ stuck up^ self-sufficient-, cp. Jer 13^^,
Ezk 16^^, Zeph 3^^ — The daughters of Sioti] the ladies of the
" West-end " : on Sion lay the royal palace. — Tripping] the vb.
fl^DlD (here only) probably signifies the quick, tripping gait, making
a patter on the ground, of the women whose legs were bound
by ornamental chains (v.^o ?) ; just as t]l3 denotes little children,
probably on account of their pattering walk. The word is
onomatopoetic : cp. the like sounding Aryan tap-. l-c1^ has
amongst other meanings that of passing by quickly^ and -*^^<^ f^
is used of a flickering candle. Cp. U, plaudebant ambulabant
pedibus suis. — -Jingling with their feet] so walking that the metal
anklets, a favourite ornament with the women of the East,
* Che., Marti.
72 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
striking against one another, make a jingling noise and attract
attention. Cp. Muhammed's prohibition — " Let them not strike
with their feet, so that those ornaments of theirs that be hidden
be made known" (Kor. 24^1). — 17. A scab'] such as accompanies
leprosy, Lv 13 f. — Shame] cp. 47^, Jer 1326, La i^, Ezk i637; but
the meaning of J^ is very doubtful. U renders hair^ and this has
been defended by Sta. : the veil worn by women of position will be
stripped away (cp. 47^), and the hair exposed ; see, further, phil. n.
18-23. A catalogue of one-and-twenty articles of women's
finery : probably a prose addition to the poem : see small print
n. above. Some of the terms are of uncertain meaning, and it is
therefore difficult to say whether the catalogue is carelessly
compiled without any principle of arrangement, or an artistically
constructed list. Cond. ingeniously defends the latter view, and
argues that the bijoux and analogous articles are mentioned first
(vv.^^"2i), and then the sumptuous vestments (vv.22^-). But DnxB,
head-dresses (v.^o), and niQ''3V, turbans (v.^i), are widely separated
from one another. Cond. also detects a subtle arrangement of
grammatical forms ; the 2 1 forms fall into three groups of 8, 5
and 8; the first 8 nouns consist of 3 masc. pi. + 3 fem. pi. f
I masc. + 1 fem. ; the second 8 are disposed in an inverse order,
3 fem. pi. + 3 masc. pi. + i fem. + 1 masc. Two earlier scholars
wrote extensive monographs on this list : N. W. Schroder, Comm.
de vestitu mulierum Heb. adjes. 3^^^*, 1745, and A. Th. Hartmann,
Die Hebrderin am Putztischy 1809 ; see also the commentaries of
Ges., Del., Di. The following notes merely attempt to indicate
briefly the nature of the evidence for the meanings attributed to
the words. — 18. Anklets] cp. the sing. DDy in Pr 7^21 (text
doubtful), the denominative vb. in v.^^ and ^juwK^, the cord tied
in the forepart of the nose of a camel to his fore-legs (Lane). —
The net-bands] the D''3K^ in NH was the ornamental band that
passed from ear to ear over the n33D, a net covering and enclos-
ing the hair (Levy, iv. 498) ; ffir ra cttAokui. Less probably 1 and
D have interchanged, and the word means a little sun (-ouj<^«^),
a pendant worn round the neck. Cp. the next term. — The moons]
amulets worn by animals (Jg S^i- 26|) as well as women. They
were pendants in the shape of the moon, in particular perhaps of
the new, or crescent (RV), moon ; the meaning was evident to
(K firjvLaKOL (cp. U lunulae\ and is supported by the etymology.
III. 17-20 73
which is obvious : pnt5^ is a derivative, not necessarily a diminu-
tive (G-K. 86^), from "inc (= -y-2*,^ the new moon\ which occurs
not only in Aramaic literature (see Levy, s.v. Kin^D, N"inD), but
also in early Aramaic and in South-Arabian inscriptions as
the name of the moon, or moon-God ; the god inB^ is men-
tioned along with ^^^ in the Aramaic inscription of Zakir
(9th cent. B.C.).* Similarly, hildly the new moon^ is also used
of crescent-shaped ornaments or amulets : We. Reste d. Arab.
Heidenthums^^ 145. — 19. The ear-rings] Jg S^^f : there also coupled
with " moons." These nefiphoth were probably drop-like or pearl
ear-rings; cp. C]ID3, to drip^ nitphi (cstr.), drops (of water); Ar.
nafafat, an ear-ring or small pearly naffafa, to put on ear-rings,
and (reflexive) tanafiafa. — Bracelets] with ni"ll5't cp. the Aram.
]; > *j K"i^B', chains, both for the arms and other parts of the body.
5r is here explicit, NH^ n^6J^ : cp. also Arab, siwdr^ a bracelet, and
Assyr. hmiru {^sewiru, sawiru) with the same meaning: see
Zimmern in ZA 17, 242. BDB derive from ^|'\'^'^. — Veils] with
H^ixnfj cp. Jxj, a kind of veil (Freytag). It is doubtful whether
(&% recognised this meaning. — 20. Head-dresses] onNB else-
where used of the ornamental cap of a bridegroom (61 3- ^o) or of
priests (Ex 392®, Ezk 2417. 28 4418^)^ — Armlets] with nnyvf, cp.
mWN (Nu 31*^ (n.), 2 S 1^0) and Juic, the upper part of the arm.
jLit, a large bracelet. Others derive from 1j;v, to march, and
render step-chains, i.e. chains connecting the anklets (v.^^). —
Sashes] Jer 2^'^\ : cp. the vb. in Is 41^. — The perfume boxes] lit.
houses of soul, or soul-houses, these may have been carried in the
sashes; cp. Ca i^^. Unfortunately the meaning is far from
certain; Pr 27® gives very uncertain support for K'BJ meaning
perfume. Nor is boxes of desire, or exciting the sense of smell, very
probable : see BDB 66i«, 109^. Haupt {SBOT, p. 82) would
derive tJ'Sa here from the Assyr. pasdsu, and explain ointment-boxes.
Frazer retains the normal sense of soul for B^B3, and traces the
phrase to the belief in the external soul : " it may well be that
these * houses of the soul ' were amulets in which the soul of the
wearer was supposed to lodge" : Anthropological Essays presented
* Pognon, Inscriptions Simitiques (1908), no. 86, ii. 24, reproduced by
Driver in -ff^/., June 1908, pp. 481 ff., with note on Sahar (p. 489). See also
Cooke, NSI 188.
74 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
to E. B. Tylor, p. 148. — Charms'\ or amulets probably consisting
of something inscribed with magic formulae : with D^K^np here, cp.
K^np in V.3. — 21. Signet-rings] see, e.g.^ Est 3^2 Q^ ^1^2 — j\^ose-
rings] cp. e.g. Gn 24*''. — 22. State-gowns] Zee 3*: apparently
so called as those which were stripped off (K^n) before resuming
ordinary life : ct. the English " undress," dress not worn on
formal occasions. — Mantles] niStOVD f : cp. fjOy, to envelope oneself
II C'i?, to clothe oneself Ps 65^* ; i_jLac, a mantle, — Shawls] or veils
{DB i. 627^): Ru 3i5f.^ — Satchels] or purses \ with D^tDnnf, cp.
«itk) ^r»- with the same meaning. Peiser, on the ground that pockets
are out of place here, surmises that this is another term for clothing,
ZATWy 1897, 341. — 23. Diaphanous garments] €r, apparently
for D''31vli, has Sia^av^ AaKojnKa ; if this be the right meaning, the
garments are so termed as revealing {rhi) the form beneath : cp.
Assyr. gul^nu^ an article of clothing, Arab. ^^^^ fine silk
garments. Others render mirrors, i.e. tablets (cp. 8^ n.), that
reveal the reflected face. — Linen garments] Jg 14^2. w p^ 3ii!4| ,.
cp. Assyr. sudinnu, a garment) see EBi. 2933; M.00TQ, Judges,
335, 337. — Turbans] costly or official: see especially Ecclus ii^;
see also 62^, Zee 3*, Job 29^*, Ecclus 47^t- — Large veils] like
the modern izar {DB i. 627) may be intended by DH^Ti (Ca 5^!):
cp. lfj»?5l, NTTi, in Gn 246^ 381*, SiW' = ^ ^l^yv.
24. Perfume] the smell of sweet aromatics used, for example,
by women in purification (Est 2^^), or at burial (2 Ch 16^*). The
contrast is rottenness (po), i.e. the smell of scabs or festers iy.^'^) :
cp. " my wounds fester (lp03) stinkingly," Ps 38^. — A rope\] that
encircles {f\pi, 29^) the waist. — Hair well dressed] nc^pp f is to
be interpreted, in the light of the context and nc'pp, hammered,
or turned, metal work, of some artistic treatment of the hair. — A
rich dress] such should be the meaning of the obscure 7i^nBt :
(5r XtTu>v fi€a-o'7r6pc}>vpo<s. — Sackcloth] 20^ n. — Branding for beauty]
the clause, if not a popular assonance placed on the margin by a
reader (Du.), may be a fragment of a distich. With ^3 cp. n^ia,
Ex 21^^ Sta. {ZATW, 1905, 133) suggests that it is not the
branding of punishment that is referred to, but branding as a
means of cure. This is energetically applied to men and children,
but the beauty of women and girls is spared : they will be so
ik<
III. 2I-IV. I AND III. 16-24 75
spared no more, when the days of catastrophe come. — 25, 26.
On the relation of these verses to the rest, see pp. 70 f. — Thy . . .
ifs . . . /V] these pronouns are fern, and refer to the city (of
Jerusalem). The gates (D^nnD, 13^) mourn (^1^^ 13K, 19*),
because people no longer pass through them. The empty city is
pictured as one sunk to the ground and mourning : cp. La 2^'',
Job 2I8, Is 47I. — IV. I. Women will not wait for men to ask them
in marriage, but will press to be married, promising to forego the
food and raiment which a husband should provide (Ex 21^**), if
only they may gain protection against insults by passing into a
man's possession. — Be thy name called over us\ i.e. pass as our
owner, or possessor : cp. 631'^, 2 S 1228, Dt 28^*^, Am 9^^^
III. 16. '3 jy] 7" 8« 29" : also Nu ii» i K 13" 2i»t. Isaiah docs not
use the more frequent nrK |y\ — nnoj] i.e. riwxi) with preservation of the
radical (G-K. T^v) : K*re, nvtp^. — nnpbD] not, as in some MSS and the
Bomberg edition, '«W3, whence AVmarg. deceiving with their eyes. nBJf is
dir. Xe7. in Hebrew, but cp. Aram. npD, to look out, eye, especially with evil
intent (so i S iS* 5), or to look abotit : cp. also \\ ornVn, squint-eyed. In
wy]} "[pv the vb. may be causative and the noun a direct ace, making the eyes
look about, or more probably the Piel is intensive and the noun, as in the
previous clause, an epexegetical gen. (G-K. 128^:), ogling with the eyes. (&
renders here iv vtvfuanriv 6<f>0a\/jMv, ^ 1 1 » V^ j]^;^, U nutibus oculorum,
C pi'y IpsnoD may express the same sense (cp. Levy, Aram. Worterbuch, ii.
571), or, as some think, it vatKus anointing their eyes with stibium. " Rabbi
Jose of Caesarea explained, 'they painted their eyes with Knp'O'; Resh
Lakish said, 'with red collyrium '" (Pesikta d. R. Kahana, 132a, b). —
nja^n f]i£)ai ^^'?^] G-K. 113J, w.— on^Sj-ia] on- for }n- ; G-K. 135^. — njDjyn]
pathah for Sere : cp. 13^^ and see G-K. $2n. The vb. is a denominative of
Day ; v." n.— 17. nsri] b for d : G-K. 6k : cp. nn£o(D), a scab, Lv i3»-8 14".
— pns] in I K 7** nine denotes the sockets in the lintel and threshold in
which the doors turned, and the Arabic Ci->fti means interstitium, space
between two fingers ; hence it has been most precariously inferred that ne
meant pudenda muliebria. If this meaning, which seems in harmony with
the context, was intended, it is not improbable that jnns, or rather jnnD mnn,
is a corruption of jnninm, nsnn being used as in 47' ; see J. Bachmann in
TSKy 1894, p. 650. ffi,SC may have detected this meaning and euphemiscd
— t6 <rx^/*a ainQ)p, »m » Vr> . nmj^ mp\ U. crinem earum, on the
other hand, treated fnnfl as = {nnKS (G-K. 23/) ; and this explanation has
been defended by Sta., as earlier by Koppe and Hitz., in ZATW vi. 336,
xxvi. 130-133. — 18. mKBn] this cstr. case is followed by twenty-one genitives
— an extraordinary instance of a construction which, even in milder forms,
the language preferred to avoid; G-K. 128a: Kon. iii. 276. — 24. nB'yo]
pointless before rwpa, and probably a dittograph of it (Du.). — n"unD] perhaps
^6 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
the original, or a dittograph, of mun above, — 24, 25. xro 'S' nnn 'd] (& Kal 6
vl6s (Tov 6 KdWiffTos 8p dyair^s, perhaps presupposes a different text. With
the form *?(= 'i?), cp. % % 's ; see G-K. 24^, 937. — 26. am px'? nnpji]
with this cstr. cp. 29'* ; and see Dr. § 163 Obs. To be cleaned out (cp. Zee
5*^), though rare in Hebrew, may be the original meaning of n^i : see BDB.
— IV. I. vc\Tir\ DV3] ffir cm.
IV. 2-6. — -Judah and Jerusalem after the Judgment
There is unquestionably a marked tendency in the following poem to a
rhythm formed by groups of two accents, one, two or three such groups
forming lines, which are combined into balanced distichs and are parallel in
sense. If the words represented in the translation by small print be
additions, and nos n\T (^) be read as one accent (cp. Sievers), this rhythm
is not merely dominant but maintained unbroken. The separate lines, or the
sections marked off by ], correspond (the small print being disregarded) to
two accents in the Hebrew. The transposition in v.'* (ddv jjy before ""jyi
.TxipD) does not affect the rhythm, but it secures greater independence and
more complete parallelism for the two lines.
Other views of the rhythmical structure will be found in Marti, Sievers,
Cond., and Box. Du. and Che. print the whole as prose.
2 In that day | the vegetation of Yahweh shall be | a beauty
and a glory,
And the fruit of the land | a pride and an adornment |
for the escaped of Israel.
3 And it shall come to pass thosc that remain in Sion,
And those that are left in Jerusalem —
Holy shall they be called,
All that are written for life in Jerusalem.
* When the Lord shall have washed away | the filth of the
daughters of §ion.
And shall rinse away from its midst | the bloodstains of
Jerusalem,
With the spirit of judgment.
And the spirit of extermination,
^ Then will Yahweh create | over the whole site of Mount §ion |
*a cloud by day,
And over its assemblies' | smoke and brightness of fire | a
flame by night ;
For over all glory is a canopy' and a booth,
And he will be a shade | by day (?) from the heat,
A refuge and a shelter | from storm and from rain.
IV. 2-6 ^^
After Yahweh, by means of an exterminating judgment (v.*)
which will allow few to escape (vv.^^- ^), has cleansed Jerusalem
from moral filth and bloodstains (v.*), a time will come when
the land of Israel will be clothed again with verdure and will
produce crops, which will make the Jewish survivors from the
judgment and their land glorious in the eyes of the nations (v.^).
§ion will again become a city of sacred convocations (v.*) ; the
entire community will be holy (v.^); and Yahweh will visibly
manifest His presence in the same way as at the Exodus — in
cloud by day and flaming brightness by night (v.**) ; and He will
protect His city and people from all manner of misfortune and
disaster (v.*).
Even if this poem were Isaiah's, it would be doubtful in what
period of his life it was written ; it has often been assigned to
the same period as 3^^-4\ but the connection of 4* and 3^® is
probably illusory : see below.
It is more probably of exilic, or post-exilic, origin, though by
no means necessarily so late as the 2nd cent. (Du.). Whether
written for the purpose or obtained from some already existing
book, it may have been added to $^^-4^ in order that the little
book consisting of chs. 2-4 might have a consolatory conclusion.
Though the awkwardness and incoherence of style, the absence of rhythm
and the slight amount of parallelism, which have been alleged as reasons for
questioning the Isaianic authorship (Che. Introd. 20 f. ), may be in large part
due to textual corruption, or incorrect analysis of the rhythm and parallelism
(see above), the ideas and thought of the passage alone are sufficient to
render a late date very probable. "Jerusalem is already first and foremost
a city of religious rites (cp. 33^). The ' convocations ' are the * holy 'ones
of the later legislation (Ex I2^«, Lv 232- *• «', Nu 2.%^- 2* 29^ ^- "). To
Isaiah such festivals were uncongenial (l^'). ... To the writer of i^"^ they
would be glorified in the future by a constant appearance of the glory of
Yahweh (cp. 2428 6oi- '• i»- «>, Ezk 42^-') " (Che.). The writer by no means
disregards ethical qualities (v.*), but in his union of ritual and ethical he
more closely resembles Ezekiel (ch. 18 with 40-48) and later writers (48^ 52^
62", Zee 1420-", Jl 4", Ezr 828) than Isaiah {e.g. i^**-). See, further, the
Comm.
In language the most significant fact is the use of Kna (ffi K3) in v.', a
word which is predominantly, if not exclusively, late ; cp. Che. Introd. p. 21,
and Ges-B. s.v.^ with the references there given.
In 1884 {ZA TW, pp. 149-15 1 ), Sta. thought it possible to regard w.** *• ^
(in this order) as Isaiah's, and only vv."* ' as late ; and some still admit the
late origin only of v.* (with '*) : so Di., Cond., Whitehouse. But there is
really no good ground for separating v.* from what precedes ; on the other
hand, a common rhythmical character probably runs through vv.^-^ (see
78 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
above), and v.' is connected with v.^ by a point of style (see phil. n. on v.*).
Du., Che., Marti, Kent agree in regarding the whole of 4-'* as late, while
Dr. {LOT) still assigns the whole to Isaiah.
2. In that day] not the day that is mentioned in v.^, 3^*, but
a time determined by what follows, to wit, after the judgment. —
T/ie vegetation of YahweK\ all that Yahweh will cause to grow out
of the soil; cp. Gn 2^, Ps 104^* i47^- In order to emphasise
the point that Yahweh will be the source of the future fertility,
the writer employs nin"' nox as an alternative to the more usual
phrases T^yy^ixr^ nov (Gn 1926), me^n 'V (Ezk la'') ; but it is at least
unnecessary to think of the land yielding a miraculous growth
without any work of man (Marti) : for see Ps 104^*. HD^f means
not branch (EV), but whatever grows or shoots forth from the
ground, whether herbage (Gn 2^), or trees (Ex 10*) ; meta-
phorically it is used as a term for him who should re-establish
the Davidic monarchy (Jer 23^ 33^^, Zee 3^ 6^2^, and it has often *
been given a Messianic sense in this passage ; but this is incon-
sistent with the parallel the fruit of the ground^ which indeed
Del. unsuccessfully labours to show also means the Messiah !
Di. criticises this and some other mistaken interpretations at
length.— 7%<? fruit of the land] of Palestine (cp. Nu 1326). The
land of promise was a fruitful land (Dt 8^-^^, cp. 28^-1*), but from
the first promise was accompanied by warning : if the people
neglected Yahweh the fertility of the goodly land was to be
destroyed, or neutralised, by war, depopulation, continuous
drought, bad seasons ; see Lv 26, Dt 28, esp. vv.22-24. ss. ssff.^ ^nd
cp. Mai 3^"^2, The people had neglected Yahweh : the threats
had been carried out, harvests were yielding little, and what this
poem promises is a restoration of the natural fertility of the land
to those that escape and remain (v.^), after the cleansing, exter-
minating judgment (v.'*) ; the fertility and fruitfulness of their
land is to be the pride and glory of the community that
survives, making it enviable in the eyes of the nations : cp.
3730-82 6oi4f. 622-4, Jer 3I9, Ezk 2o« 3425-29._7%^ escaped of Israel]
the abstract riD^^Q is used for the concrete: cp. io20 15^ 3731^-,
Jg 21^^, 2 S 15I*; it is not confined to late writers, though in
its technical sense of those that escape the (final) judgment
(cp. Ob ^^, Jl 3^) it not improbably is. — 3. Those that remain
. . . those that are left . . . they . . . all that are written] all
* E, Ki., Vitr., Del., Lag.
IV. 2-4 79
these words in Heb. are sing, collectives ; for such sing, collect,
participles, see 7*^, 2 Ch 34^^ : cp. also Gn 4.^^, and see O-K.
126/. — //ofy shall they be called^ because they will actually be
(i*^ n.) such: cp. Zee \/^^^'. — All that are written for life in
Jerusalem] a third description of the community referred to in
a, b ; for it is altogether improbable that the clause is restrictive
(Di.), meaning that though there will be some who will acci-
dentally (!) escape the judgment, only those who escape by the
pre-ordination of Yahweh will be called holy. The v. may be
awkward, but the awkwardness is not overcome thus, nor by
rejecting this last line as a gloss (Sta.), for this does not restore
either ease of style or regularity of parallelism. Those who will
be found to have been written for life will consist of those who
sought and feared Yahweh (Am 5*, Mai 3^*), who did good and
not evil (Am 5^*, Ps 69^^), and so avoided the exterminating judg-
ment (v.*), which destroys the wicked (Mai 3^^). To be written
for life is to have one's name written in " the book of Yahweh,"
otherwise known as " the book of life (or the living)," etc. ;
those whose names are written there live, those whose names
have never been written there, or have been erased, die. The
earliest reference in the OT to this book is Ex 3282^- ; later
references are frequent: see Mai 3^^, Ps 692^, Dn 12^, En 47^
104I io83. Jubilees 3020-22, Lk io20, Ph 48, He 1223, Rev 3*
138 lyS 20^2. 16 2i27. In most of thcse later references the
life secured for those whose names are written is that of the
blessed after death j here it is life on earth as a member of the
holy Jewish community. The idea of the book of Yahweh, or
of life, has its parallel, if not indeed its origin, in Babylon : the
god Nebo wrote on tables "not only the fate of the world, but
also that of individuals," and there were "tables of favour" and
" of good works " : see JCAI^, pp. 402 ff. ; and Jeremias' article
"Book of Life," in Hastings, Encyc. of Rel. and Ethics. — 4. The
daughters of ^ion\ (&Jhe sons and daughters of $ion : this is not
a variant, but an amplified translation expressing the probably
correct conclusion that the context requires a reference to the
entire population and not merely to the women ; m32, the
daughters of is very probably an annotator's insertion * to
establish a connection with 3^^ : the omission of the word
improves the balance of the two lines and restores the normal
* So tentatively Marti.
8o
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
parallelism Sion . . . Jerusalem : cp. e.g. 40^ 41^7 64®, Mic
^10. 12^ Then with the filth of Sion, cp. " the uncleanness " of
Jerusalem, Ezk 22^^. — The bloodstains of Jerusalem] cp. Ezk
2 22^-, Jer 2^*; the writer may be thinking in particular of the
innocent blood that was the cause of the Exile: 2 K 21^^ 24^^'?
Ezk 723 222-4, and ? Ps 51^^. — Rinsed out] nn is used in Ezk 4088,
2 Ch 4^ of rinsing clean animals offered for sacrifices : later (Levy,
NHB^ s.v,\ of rinsing out cups also. In Assyr. dihu and rihsu
are synonyms, as nn and I'm here : see Del. Proleg, 2770. i. —
With the spirit of judgment^ etc.] that unseen power, the spirit of
Yahweh, which at other times is creative or life-giving (Gn i^,
Ps 104^0), will come into play, executing judgment on those who
have filled Jerusalem with blood, and exterminating all evil-doers
(i28, Am 9^0). The word "lya, extermination (C), may be used
with conscious reference to the Deuteronomic phrase, "Thou
shalt exterminate that which is evil from thy midst"; e.g, Dt 13*.
lya also means to burn : hence ffi,SU, E V, the spirit of burning :
cp. Mt 3^^. — 5* Over the city thus purified will rest the same
physical phenomena that marked Yahweh's presence at the
Exodus, Ex 1321^-. — Then will Yahweh create] ffi And he
will come and {it shall) be ; but this is not preferable to J^ (see
phil. n.). The creation of the cloud by day and the fiame by
night is a parallel to the return of the " glory of Yahweh " (Ezk
431-4) after the Exile to the holy city, which becomes in conse-
quence the city of Yahweh's presence (Ezk 48^5) ; these
accompaniments of the divine presence are to cover not only
the Temple (cp. Ex ^o^-^\ i K S^o'-), but the whole site of Mount
Sion. — Its assemblies] i^^ ^^ — ^^ ^ygf^ ^11 glory is a canopy] or
for over all (cp. Gn 16^2 24I), glory is a canopy. This strange
remark, which is not much illuminated by the quotation in Ecclus
40^7, is probably an annotation : it may be corrupt ; the opening
words of v.^ and a booths probably belong to it, either as a
synonym added to a canopy or a note explaining it. nan in
Jl 2^^, Ps 19^1 is the bridal chamber: here it is supposed to
have a less restricted meaning — canopy, covering : cp. the vb. in
2 S 15^^ Jer 143. "As the king sits under, as the bride and
bridegroom go under, a canopy, so the Temple Mount as a
king's throne, the religious community as bride of the heavenly
bridegroom, must have a canopy over it" (Du.). — 6. And he
will be] so ffi ; ?^ and a booth (emphatic) will be, or, a booth will
^1
i
IV. 2-6, V. 8 1
it (viz. Sion) be ; both most improbable, for booths (cp. Jon 4*)
and cities at all times furnished some sort of shelter from
weather, but the point of the v. is that Yahweh will be the shelter
and protection of the community, and that therefore no harm or
hurt will befall it: cp. 25^ and Ps <^\^^ (where i)V, nono, and
">nD are predicated of Yahweh as are i>V, nono, and linOD here),
I2i6f. (Yahweh giving shade from the heat), Jl 4^® (Yahweh a
refuge ; and so often in Pss.).
2. Whether (!& read very differently (Che. ) or paraphrased a text similar
to f§ (cp. Oort, Th. Tijd. xx. 565) is uncertain ; perhaps nos was read nn:*
( = X(iAt7reti', La 4'). — ^3. TDK' . . . n'm] Dr. § I2i, Obs. i ; but tvtu can be
spared, and it seems to be rhythmically redundant. — 1^ TDK'] 'V nDK3, to be
called, occurs also in 19" 32' 61^ 62H. — 4. d«] ivheriy cp. 24^' 7.%^ and, in
narrative of the past, Gn 38^ Nu 21*, and, if the text be sound, Am 7^. V.*
is taken by many as the completion of v.*, not the commencement of v.". —
5. nin» Kn3i] J^^'STF ; but fflr reads /cai -^^ei koX #(j-rat = .Tm xni. Che., who
renders He will come and there will be, and Marti adopt ffi ; Du. Cond.
combine ffi and f^ and read ni.T k31 ; this involves, as Du. perceives, the
omission, which is supported by neither J^ nor ffi, of Sa before psD ; for
Vy K3 in a friendly sense, cp. Ex 18^. — nx^pD] some MSS read -TNipo. —
nmpD Vyi] fflr koX irdvTa tA ireptKi^xXy avrrjs (claimed by Oort as = n'B'njD), S (?)
C7Lk5{3«» NIL, ^ n'wor n»a vik '?j;i, U «/ ubi invocatus est. ffi's Tdti'Ta may
render Sv misread Sa, or Va may have been lost in J^ (cp. || pan Sa) ; Du.
with less probability omits Sy altogether. The parallelism is improved if
we suppose this clause originally stood after ddv. — '1 jB'yi] jry is perhaps a
dittograph of py, and the two \ subsequent additions. — 5, 6. nna^Va-Vy '3
n'nn naoi nsn] (K /cal irdcri; r^ 86^]? aKewaadi^erai Kal (ffrai. In ffi (TKeiraa-
d-^<T€Tai (=130, Ex 40*- 2^) renders one of the words nsn and naoi, and has no
equivalent for the other. Instead of n'nn, dSc probably read n\ni ; and this,
moreover, is probably the true reading, for which n\nn was substituted after
nao was erroneously separated from what precedes. From n'ni to the end of
v.* is a well-balanced distich (4 : 4) of parallel lines ; though the balance
would be imperfect if ®r is correct in omitting ddv : probably in this respect
1^ is preferable to ffi, though it is possible DDV conceals a synonym to ^s —
Yahweh will be a shade and a . . . from the heat ; note the writer's fondness
for synonyms : see vv.^ *•• "^ and probably ^^, If the reading n'm be correct,
the intrusive nature of nam nsjn maa-^a-Vy 'a is obvious.
V.
This chapter is in no sense a continuation of ch. 4 : from
the Messianic hopes at the end of chs. 2-4 we return here to
announcements of judgments in three very distinct and un-
connected poems — (i) w.^-*^, the parable of the vineyard;
VOL I. — 6
82
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
(2) vv.^-24, a collection of "woes"; (3) w.^^-si, the misplaced
conclusion of 9'^-io*
V. 1-7. — The Parable of the Vineyard,
Special Discussions : — P. Cersoy, " L' Apologue de la Vigne," in Rev, Bibl,^
1899, pp. 2-12 ; P. Haupt, •* Isaiah's Parable of the Vineyard," AJSL xix.
193-202.
The rhythm of the poem can only be reduced to regularity by extensive
omissions such as Haupt makes in reducing the whole to four stanzas, each
consisting of four lines, each line containing four accents equally divided by a
caesura. If the present text is substantially correct, the quality of the rhythm
appears to change ; the light tripping effect of short lines (down to v.^^) gives
place to longer and weightier lines in the grave and solemn application of the
parable at the close. The following types of distich occur :
2 : 2 in vv.^*- ^ (makkeph wm'B'K and nn-m'»), •• ^ (if 'h'r\''7\ be
substituted for nn'^), **• »>• ^ •*.
2c. d. 4a. b
(?) ^- *» (makkeph 'JK'nts'K-nK) *^ <*.
3 : 3 m w.
3 : 2 in vv.i«- ^ (|§), 2e. f. Sa. b. 4». b (probably).
4 : 2 in v.^- **.
4 : 4 in vv.''*'* **• '■- *• (makkeph 'r"-n'a or omit niK3s).
4 : 3 in vv.**' •> (if tdi'-k^ and myK*?! may each be read as one accent),
1 Let me sing of my loved one, I pray,
A song of . . . touching his vineyard.
A vineyard belonged to my loved one
On a fertile hill-top;
2 And he opened up the ground, and cleared out its stones,
And he planted it with the choicest vines ;
And he built in its midst a tower,
And hewed out in it also a wine-press;
And he expected it to yield grapes,
And it yielded — wildings.
8 And now, ye dwellers in Jerusalem,
And ye men of Judah,
Judge, pray, between me
And between my vineyard.
* What remained to do for my vineyard
That I had not done in it?
Why when I looked for yield of grapes
Yielded it — wildings?
V. 1-7 83
» And now, pray, let me acquaint you
With what I shall do to my vineyard;
1 will take away its hedge that it be depastured,
I will make breaches in its walls that it be trampled down,
* I will make it a waste, unpruned and unhoed,
And it shall spring up with thorns and briars;
And I will command the clouds
That they rain no rain upon it.
'' For the vineyard of Yahweh Sebaoth is the House of Israel,
And the men of Judah the plantation in which he
delighted ;
And he expected justice, but, behold, bloodshed,
Righteousness, but, behold, a cry!
In J^ the poem is articulated as follows : v.^** \ introduction ;
^"-^f the prophet's description of the vineyard ; ^"^, the speech
of the owner of the vineyard which towards its close (v.^''- ^)
somewhat clearly reveals the speaker to be Yahweh ; vJ, the
prophet's interpretation of the parable. In ffi vv.^^- ^ also belong
to the speech of the owner.
The vineyard which has received all the care that any vine-
yard could receive is Judah ; its owner, Yahweh ; the fruit it
should have yielded, righteousness and justice ; the fruit actually
yielded, violence and inhumanity. With great rhetorical effect-
iveness the ultimate conclusion is left for the audience to draw
for themselves — Yahweh will abandon Judah to destruction.
With the theme of the parable, cp. the teaching of Amos
at Bethel a generation before : see especially Am 3^. For
other applications of the figure of the vineyard to Israel, see
27^*, Jer 2^1 i2iof.^ Ps 8o»^-, Mt 2188^-. In the specific applica-
tion of details, as of the tower in v.* to the Temple, of the
wine-press to the altar, C (cp. Jerome) is mistaken.
Possibly enough this poem was recited by Isaiah (cp.
Introd. §§ 36 ff.) on a great national feast day : at the close of the
vintage and in the Temple Courts he would easily have found
men of the country as well as of the city — v.**- ^ : cp. Jer 36^.
But the year in which the poem was either written or recited
cannot be even approximately determined : the thoughts
expressed in it may have occupied Isaiah's mind at almost any
period of his life. Du. argues, inconclusively, that the parable
84
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
form indicates that the poem was written early, since later the
audience would have guessed from the start the burden of the
song; Hackm. (p. 123), that it was written late, when Isaiah,
being long known as a prophet of evil, had to conceal his
meaning in order to gain a hearing. An early date has been
inferred by others rather on account of the early date, assumed
or proved, of the neighbouring poems (chs. 2-4 5^"^®) than
from anything in the parable itself.
la. b. These lines are ambiguous, and the text not beyond
question. — My loved one] Tl^ is used of Judah (Jer ii^^^ Ps 60^),
and Benjamin (Dt 33^2^ ^s the loved one of Yahweh : cp. also
Ps 1272. Here, if the text in v.^*' is correct, it must be applied
to Yahweh : yet it is remarkable that Isaiah should use, even in
parable, so familiar a term : poets of another race and temper
may speak of God as " my darling," * but to Isaiah, Yahweh was
the Holy One, the Lord, the Mighty One. If v.^*' is corrupt we
might render in ^^ to my loved one^ i.e. Israel (cp. ffiFC, AV), or of
my beloved (vineyard) : see below. That Tn^ in v.^* is Israel and
in in v.i^ and by restoration in v.^*' is Yahweh, as Sta. {ZA W
xxvi. 134) proposed, is very improbable. — The song of , . .] nn,
left untranslated on account of its ambiguity, may be a synonym
(cp. e.g. Ca i^^^-) of in"' in the previous line : in also means
uncle, and is actually rendered here by Jer., though with obvious
unsuitability, patruelis. In the pi. DHIT means love^ but always
perhaps specifically sexual desire or its satisfaction : see Ezk
158 2317^ Pr 7I8, Ca i^-* 410 5I. If we render the song of my
beloved (MT, EV), then v.^* will imply that the loved one is the
subject of the poem, or the person to whom it is addressed, ^^
that he is the author of the song and his vineyard the subject :
this is awkward and improbable in itself; moreover, the next
lines show that the friend is not the author, but the subject of
the poem : he is spoken of in the 3rd pers. Di. indeed, though
quite unsatisfactorily, attempts to meet this difficulty by suggest-
ing that Isaiah has translated the words of the friend into the
3rd pers. and so avoided making God recite a popular song (ct.
272-6). — His vineyard^ fflc my vineyard. If we adopt ffi, and
also the ist persons of (& in v.^, and assume further that
"•in^fj in line c is a corruption, under the influence of the same
word in the previous line, of ^7, that *in^ might be used of life-
* E. G. Browne, A Year amongst the Persians, p. 490.
V. I, 2 85
less objects, and that *in was not limited to sexual desire,
then, pointing ^llT we should have an excellent introductory
couplet :
Let me sing of the thing that I love.
The song of my love for my vineyard.
Then the entire song, so far as it treats directly of the vineyard, is
in the first person : the prophet in reciting it seems at first to be
referring to a vineyard of his own, and only towards the close
does he allow it to be seen that he is speaking in Yahweh's
name. But the difficulties of the v., and of the relation of f^
and (&J have as yet reached no solution.
ia-2. The site of the vineyard is an isolated hill-top or hill,
which catches all the sunshine : the soil is fertile. The owner
has carefully turned the soil to increase its power to bear well,
and cleared it of stones, an important process in the rocky,
stony but potentially fruitful soil of Palestine; cp. Job 5^8, ct.
2 K 3^'. On this well-chosen and well-prepared soil vines of
choice stock have been planted, and something more than a
mere temporary shelter (i 8), a permanent tower (cp. Mt 21^3), has
been erected for the protection of the vineyard. Finally, a wine-
press is hewn out in the rock to receive the juice of the grapes
which ought to be the result of all this care. The actual crop
consists of worthless berries.
My loved one] possibly an error for to mei see last n. on
v.^^ — A fertile hilltop] in Heb. idiom, which U renders literally,
and after it, Wycliffe, a horn the son of oil. The use of pp, hom^ is
paralleled by ^^.5, a small hill, or a part of a hill separated from
the rest, and by Alpine names such as Gabelhorn, Matterhom ;
with pK^, oil, for fatness, fertility, cp. D^3»K^ S"'i, 28^, and the use of
the vb. in Dt 32^* ; and for the idiomatic use of " son," see BDB,
s.v, 8. — 2. He opened up the ground] in NH the vb. pTV (here only
in OT) means to turn over the ground, as, for example, under olive-
trees (vn^T nnn pnyu^ 1KV»), or in a graveyard, to see whether bones
remain there : see Levy, NHB, s.v. In Arabic the root occurs
with a similar meaning. MT perhaps rightly treats the word as a
Piel — he well, ox frequently, turned over the ground', ffiF, AV, he
fenced it, anticipate a point that comes out in v.*. — Choicest
vines] % Sore^ — apparently the name of a specially choice
vine : cp. Jer 2^^\, The nonien unitatis PlplB^ in Gn 49^^!. — A
86
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
wine-press] the Dp"* is strictly the lower trough into which the
juice pressed out in the upper trough drained off; but it is
sometimes used of the whole press: see EBi. 531 iff. The
wine-press is hewn out^ i.e. in the solid rock, which in Palestine
rises close to the surface of the soil and often crops out above
it. — Wildings] U renders D''B'N3 (v.*!) by labruscas^ i.e. grapes
that grow wild : and this is doubtless right. The root in Aram,
means to be bad, evil^ in Heb. to have a bad smell. — 3. For the
transition in 5^ at this point to the ist person, see above. Du.
supposes that up till now the audience treat the matter as a joke,
ask themselves, will the owner get rid of the vineyard to us,
or turn it into pasture, or perchance try the experiment of
planting it with wild vines. But the owner does not ask the
audience what he should do : on this his mind is made up and
communicated immediately (w.^*^-). He asks for their judgment
on the vineyard, i.e. on themselves. Like David (2 S 12), they
are driven to self-condemnation ; for they can only avoid self-
condemnation by denying the applicability of the parable, i.e. by
denying Yahweh's care (v.*^*- ^), or the present prevalence in
Israel of violence and unrighteousness (7*'* ^). — 4. After this v.,
before the first and now of v.^ (cp. v.^), a pause may be assumed
in which the audience silently allow that the owner had done all
that was required for the vineyard, and that for the vineyard itself
no excuse can be offered. — 5 f* Judgment on the vineyard : all
protection, care, and attention to be withdrawn from it. V.* fills
in fresh features of the picture. The vineyard had been pro-
tected by a hedge such as those hedges of the prickly pear which
form so efficient a protection to the gardens of modern Palestine
— around Beirut or Gaza and elsewhere, and by a wall^ perhaps
of stone (cp. Nu 22*). Hedge and wall will be removed, so
that cattle and wild beasts will be no longer hindered from coming
in to depasture and trample down ; cp. Ecclus 363^. Much of the
present treeless character of Palestine is due to the grazing off
of unprotected young shoots by goats : cp. 72*. — 6. All that
the site, henceforth unpruned and untilled, will yield will be
thorns and briars. Even rain will be withheld from it by
command of the owner. — 7« ^^^ ^^ owner is Yahweh, who has
power to withhold rain, and does do so as a punishment for wrong-
doing: cp. Am 4'', Dt ii^^-i'^. — Bloodshed] the exact meaning is
not quite certain : see phil. n. The word was probably a rare one
V. 1-7 8;
chosen to gain one of the two effective assonances of these final
lines which cannot be satisfactorily represented in English — he
looked for mispaf, and lo 1 mispahi.^ Jor ^dhakah, and lo I ^"akahy
the cry especially of the wronged : see, e.g., Gn 27^, Ps 9^^ — The
house of Israel] either (i) this refers (whether exclusively or in-
clusively) to the northern kingdom, in which case the parable was
composed before 722 b.c. ; but, in view of the distinct limitation
to Judah in v.*, this seems a little improbable ; or (2) it is a
synonym for Judah, as Israel perhaps is in i^ (op. 8^** ^* 31*,
Mic I ^^'•, cf. I K 12^^); but this usage, though frequent enough
later, was certainly, and naturally, rare before the Fall of Samaria.
I. •'^^'•vh'] for the ) here and in iDnaV, q>. e.g. Gn 20", Ps 3*. (& apparently
read TT^ without the suffix (r^ -^airrj/x^vifi). — iDia] C5 'Dna; see Comm. —
'Tin rn'r] Lowth, whom many have followed, suggested wm 'v, a love-song^
which does not meet the difficulties mentioned above, and labours under the
fresh difficulty that the song is scarcely a love-song in a general and unde-
fined sense. — 2. inSpo'i] Piel privative : G-K. 52A. — 4. nwy'?] Dr. § 203. —
WVHi . . . yiTO] for the interrogative affecting the entire chain of sentences,
cp. 22^2 56". — 5. rw]i '3k] fuL instans : Dr. 135 (3). — non] the infin. Abs. is
explained by G-K. 113^ as virtually dependent on the notion of willing
implied in rw^ : by Kon. 400^, as in virtual apposition to the objec. irx. —
nawD] in MT the a is dagheshed, which would suggest as the root "I3B' More
probably (note wawplene) the 3 should be raphi^ as in Pr 1 5^^ and, with d
for r, in Mic 7*. The root is -pr (Job i'», Hos 2^1) = TD (Job 32* 388), to
shut in. — nna] the context is the best clue to the meaning of this word, which,
if it occurs s^ain, occurs only in 7^'. In 7^ MT points niB3, here n^p ; if
the words are from the same root and that root nna, the word should be
punctuated here n^s. In Arabic c^-o means to cut off^ to cut, whence it is
customary to explain n'na in 7^' as cut off, abrupt places, precipices, and nni
here as end or destruction, and the whole phrase nna n'C as parallel to n'?D nry
(10^), to make an utter end of . But this is all uncertain. The addition of
the clauses 'in lOr k^ favours a rather different meaning, such as waste or
derelict land. — 6. n*?!;] cp. 34^', Pr 24'^ — nsbo] ffi's avo^iiav, H iniquitas,
are general renderings guessed from the context; % |jlj2)Q-Ajsj, rapine,
plunder, is more specific. Del., though without reference to %, argues for
such a meaning on precarious etymological grounds. If t? stands incorrectly
for D (cp. (j-K. 6i), the word may be explained from the Arabic >^su^, to
pour out, to shed (blood) : Lane, s.v., cites the phrase --Ia«j /•^>:>» there
is shedding of blood between them. Cp. U»-yi*u^ L«t>, Kor. 6^"^. Cp. n'so,
Is 37*' : also, if correctly read, Job 14^' and, in the Mishnah, n£0 of a river
/^«r/«^ «?«/ alluvial soil (see Levy). Haupt proposes to read onk;'o = nnB'D,
corruption, instead of nsro.
88 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
V. 8-24. — A Collection of Denunciations.
Six, or perhaps in the original text seven or more (cp;
yy 14. 23 nn.)f classes of persons are successively threatened iri
sections introduced by the word ''in, ah ! (v.^ n.). \
The third, fourth, and fifth sections are the shortest ; they
consist of a single tetrastich, tristich, and distich respectively:
each defines a class that is threatened, but indicates its fate by
means of the ominous interjection alone.
In the first, second, and sixth sections, not only the class but
its punishment is described : the threat is introduced by Ah I the
punishment by therefore^ in vv.^^- 2* and (by emendation) in v.*.
So "'in is followed by pi^ in Am (^-^^ Mic 2^-^, Jer 22^^-^^ 2'^- 50^7,
Ezk 133-8- 18-20 342-7, Since, however, in 28I 2^'^^, Jer 48I, Am
5I8, Zeph 2*, Hab 2, no therefore follows ah I it is unnecessary
to assume with Du. that a description of punishment so intro-
duced must have fallen out of the text in sections 3, 4, 5.
The rhythmical differences, as well as these differences of
structure, suggest that the following sections are sayings uttered
at different times, perhaps also memorised, or recorded by
different disciples of the prophet, and then ultimately brought
together by an editor on account of their beginning with the
same interjection : cp. chs. 28-33, ^"<i the Beatitudes of the
Gospels of which one at least of the two arrangements (Mt 58-12,
Lk 620-26) must be due to an editor.
It is customary to refer these sayings to an early period of
Isaiah's life, and to assume that they refer to Judah. The
latter assumption at least is probable, failing clear evidence to
the contrary. Yet neither the dates at which nor the audience to
which they were delivered can be considered absolutely certain.
To facilitate the perception of differences of structure,
the translation of all the denunciations is given together.
Several re-arrangements have been suggested and are recorded
by Giesebrecht, who himself suggests the following: iqI 5^8
io2-4 ^8-10. 22. 11-13. 17-19. 14-16. 20. 21. 24 (^Bcitrdge, 21-23). No great
probability attaches to any of these suggestions.
Parallelism is conspicuous and the parallel lines balance perfectly, or give
at least more the impression of balance than of echo : the distichs are certainly
not for the most part 3 : 2 (Du.). The distichs are 3 : 3 in vv.i^^'- «• 2»- ^' \
and probably in ^^' «*• "• i»- " ; 4 : 4 in w.i«- "^ and probably 22 ; 5 : 5 in »»>. « ;
V. 8-24 89
6 : 6 (?) in ". In **• "*• ^* (cp. 28^ 31^ 33^) 'in forms no part of the balance
of the distich : in ^^* it does. Cp. Sievers, 360 ff.
I.
8 Ah ! they that add house to house,
That join field to field;
Till there is no more room . . .
... in the midst of the land.
* * Therefore ' Yahweh of Hosts ' hath sworn * in mine ears :
" Surely many houses shall become a desolation,
Great and goodly (houses) without inhabitant ;
^^ For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath,
And a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah.'*
2.
11 Ah I they that rise early in the morning in pursuit of
strong drink.
That tarry into the twilight while wine inflames them ;
^2 Whose feast is wont to be (made merry with) lute and
harp, timbrel and flute and wine,
But who behold not the activity of Yahweh,
And see not the work of his hands.
*' Therefore my people hath gone into exile for lack of
knowledge,
And its nobility are dying of hunger,
And its populace are parched with thirst
• •••••••
" Therefore Sheol hath enlarged its appetite,
And opened its mouth immeasurably wide.
And her splendour and her populace shall descend
(thither),
And her tumult and (all) in her that (now) is exultant.
^^ And man sinketh down and men are brought low,
And the eyes of the exalted are brought low,
1^ And so Yahweh of Hosts hath become exalted in judg-
ment.
And the Holy God hath shown himself holy in right-
eousness.
^^ And lambs shall graze . . .
And ' kids ' shall feed upon the ruins.
90
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
1* Ah ! they that draw guilt (on themselves) with cords of
ungodliness,
And (the punishment of their) sin as with wagon-ropes;
1* Who say, Let him speedily hasten his work that we may
see,
And let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel draw
near and be fulfilled that we may know (it).
^^' Ah ! they that call evil good and good evil,
Making light into darkness and darkness into light,
Making sweet into bitter and bitter into sweet.
21 Ah ! they that are wise in their own eyes,
And in their own sight intelligent.
6.
22 Ah ! the mighty topers of wine,
And the valiant in mixing strong drinks,
23 Who acquit the guilty in return for a bribe.
And deprive the innocent of his acquittal.
^ Therefore, as a tongue of fire devoureth stubble,
And hay falls (to ashes) in the flame,
Their root shall be as rottenness,
And their blossom when it opens as dust
^For they have despised the instruction of Yahweh of
Hosts,
And contemned the word of the Holy One of Israel.
8-10. Denunciation of those who dispossess their neighbours
of their homesteads in order to increase their own estates.
Such dispossession, whether brought about by fraudulent or
oppressive action (Mic 2^) or by purchase (cp. i K 21^''), cut
deep into a strong religious feeling in favour of the perpetua-
tion in the family of the family land. It is probable that
religious feeling and the immediate appeal to the human
V. 8-10 gi
sentiment occasioned by evictions rather than a far-seeing percep-
tion of the effect which the new fashion might have on the
national economy, account for the common criticism of Isaiah
and Micah : Micah appears to feel most keenly the sufferings of
the evicted, Isaiah perhaps the effect on the powerful appropri-
ators. But Yahweh has sworn, and Isaiah heard the oath, that
these men who trust in the greatness of their estates, purchased,
perhaps, with money gained in trade (cp. 2* n.), will find in them
the cause of their own ruin. Deprived by Yahweh of its fertility,
the land will yield no return, and will therefore swallow up the
money spent on working it. — 8. AA/] cp. i* 28^ 29^ etc. — 7/7/
/here is no room . . .] left for any but these rich land purchasers,
till the old yeoman class ceases to retain any position in the
country. This is what the context suggests : whether it is ex-
pressed by the two words which follow in ^, and which may be
translated and ye are made to dwell alone^ is doubtful : see phil. n.
— 9. Therefore Yahweh of Hosts hath sworn in my ears\ RV tacitly
emends the text, but badly. J^ is certainly wrong ; it can only be
translated in my ears is Yahweh of Hosts ^ which is nonsense, or in
the ears of Yahweh of HostSy which would be obviously defective.
(& goes far to support the conjecture adopted in the trans. : see
phil. n. — In my ears] the prophet has heard Yahweh's threat.
Am 3^". — 10. Ten acres] ten times as much ground as a yoke of
oxen can plough in a day, will only yield one dathj i.e. about
8 gallons of wine : and seed sown will only yield a ^^^th ; a ^omer
= io~epIiahs, Ezk 45".
8. unp' . . . 'y^JD] Dr. § 1 17 f.— Dipo osh ny] fK tva toG vXrjcriov itp^Xuvral ti
— a paraphrastic rendering of perhaps the same words as now stand in |^. —
□DnnV DDDB'ini] ffi fi^ oiKT^aere fjidvoi may imply very nearly the same letters as ^.
But the sudden introduction of the 2nd pers. casts suspicion on |^ ; and it is
very doubtful vv'hether the Hophal of ae" (Is 44^=/<? 6g inhabited) really meant
to be a tandowner (Du.). — 9. nin» »3TK3] (ffir ^Koiadij yhp els rd (Bra Kvpiov, i.e.
♦"' 'iJK3 HDtPi ?, which is obviously in itself unsuitable, but points to [l]3[S]
'"' •'iiH2 ]12V3 as the original text (Marti) ; for the frequent confusion of D
and a, cp. Driver, Samuel^ p. Ixviii. Note the formula of the oath Kf?"DK which
follows. Others, on the ground of 22**, restore n^aa pV. — '"nox] for the closed
syllable in the cstr. pi., see G-K. 93/w.
II-13. Woe to those who give themselves up to carousals,
drinking from early morning till late in the evening, made merry
with music, and blinded by their gaieties to the work of
Yahweh, or, as we might say, to the reality of the unseen. The
92 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
4
punishment of these wine-bibbers and gluttons will be hunger and
thirst accompanying exile. Similar denunciations occur in Am
6*^, and of women who drink in 4^ : cp. also Ecclus lo^^^- —
Twilight] strictly the time when the (evening) breeze springs up :
cp. Gn 3^. — Hath gone into exile] the perfect used with reference
to a future irrevocably fixed. — 13. For lack of knowledge] cp.
Hos 4^ ; for lack of the knowledge of God (cp. i^), which the
leaders ought to have given, but had not, the whole people is
doomed : a general captivity is imminent : cp. Am 6^. Possible
also is the rendering without knowledge^ unawares^ i.e. in their
intoxication they will fail to realise their fate : cp. Job 4^^. — Its
nobility] or those held in honour : 11133 is abstract for concrete
(cp. 3^^), and the sing. suf. refers to my people. — Dying with
hunger] 3^1 ""riD, or '"i ""np (MT), men of hunger^ i.e. famished
with hunger. — Its populace] or, the crowd thereof-, the entire
people (1^), plebs* (^^*') as well as nobles (i^^), will suffer
privation. For 1133 and jion as antithetic terms, see 16^*; and
for jicn, meaning the undistinguished mass of people, 2 S 6^^
The crowd JIDH is so called from the noise {^x:iT^ of a multitude,
and mostf give the word here a specific reference to the
noisy revellers (cp. v.^*) of v.^^^ making the terms of ^*^* ° co-
extensive instead of complementary.
14. Therefore] cp. v.^^ ; the recurrence of therefore with no
ah \ intervening suggests that a verse (beginning with ah !) has
been lost at this point ; note also that there is nothing in v.^^ to
which the four pronominal suffixes {her^ of v.^* can attach ; these
pronouns doubtless refer to a city, probably Jerusalem. —
Sheot] is personified as an insatiable (Hab 2^, Pr 30^^) monster
ready to swallow up in an instant the whole of the gay city-
throng (cp. 2 2^^-); but alongside of this personification, the
belief in Sheol as a country under the earth makes itself felt ;
the multitude go down into it : cp. Gn 37-'^^ — 15. A repetition,
with some variation, of 2^'^^ ^- i^*-^ ; here probably out of place, as
Eichhorn already perceived. V.^* speaks of men perishing, v.^* of
their being brought low; and, unlike the rest of vv.^^^^ which
speaks of definite classes, v.^^ refers to mankind in general. —
16. Cp. 2^'^^^ but the resemblance here is much less close than in
the previous v. Nevertheless many % consider that this v. also is
* Du. t Hitz., Ew., Del., Di., Che., Marti.
X Eich., Sta., Du., Che., Kit., Marti, Cond.
V. II-I7 93
interpolated ; yet it would not be impossible to discover a con
nection between v.^* and v.^* : the holiness of God is revealed
through His righteousness, His righteousness through His judg-
ment on His own people and city (v.^^), who have violated His
demands for justice and humanity (cp. 5^). — 17. A picture of
desolation, which once perhaps immediately followed not v.^® *
but v.^*, forming its sequel : on the desolate site of the once busy
and exultant city, cattle now feed : cp. 17^ 32^^ The point of the
V. is clear from the words. And lambs shall graze . . . and (on)
ruins . . . shall . . . feed : the other words are uncertain ; but
probably kids (cp. C&) was the subject of the 2nd vb. Line b f^
is commonly understood to mean, (Shepherd-)wanderers shall
feed^ i.e. cause their flocks to feed, on the ruins, which were once
the home of the fat, i.e. of the prosperous persons ; but this is
impossible ; not to speak of other improbabilities, D''"IJ does not
mean wanderers. The corruption of D^li (ffli), kids, into D^"i3 (5^),
sojourners, may be not unconnected with an early allegorising
interpretation which may even underlie ffir, " and they that were
spoiled shall feed like bulls, and lambs shall devour the wastes of
them that were led away," and appears clearly in 21^, " and the
righteous shall feed, as was said concerning them : they shall
multiply, and the righteous shall possess the substance of the
unrighteous." Jer. gives a Christian turn to the allegory, " Tunc
qui fuerunt de agnorum numero non haedorum pascentur in
Ecclesiae pratis." Finally, Rashi (abbreviated) — " the poor will
now come to sojourn {yd^p) in the houses of the rich who had
oppressed them, and will devour their portion." These are
interesting examples of interpretation eliciting the exact opposite
of the writer's intention.
II. ipaa 'D'3BTD] cstr. before a prep. ; G-K. 130a. — op'^i*] Dr. § 163. —
12. D.TJiB'D] sing. ; G-K. 93JJ. — 13. nyi »V3d] for the causal p, cp. Dt 9**. —
'09] MT seems to embody a late interpretation ; ffitZT^U all imply 'Cp.
With MT, cp. Kir 'no and p« 'no, Job 11" 22^^ Hitzig's suggestion to read
here niD after Dt 32^ (itself doubtful) has found considerable favour. — 14.
nrsj] trsj, appetite, as 29^, Pr 23^. — '3 B'npj] to show oneself holy in or by means
of: Nu 20^^ (P) and several times in Ezek. , e.g. 28^* ^. — 17, D^a^^] (K (is raOpoi,
i.e. Dn3N3. V {juxta ordinem suum), Rashi, Ki., AV, give "OT the meaning
oi manner (cp. e.g. Dt 15^^) — feeble and improbable; modem scholars, since
Ges., have commonly assumed that '\2i = ')2iD, pasture (cp. \i^^ feld), and
• Ew., Guthe, Cond.
^
94
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
4
rendered as in their pasture, i.e. freely ; but in Mic 2^t, where nm, pasture (?)
is supposed to occur, the text is very doubtful. Marti proposes naiDa. —
i'?DK' nnj D'nD nmni] corrupt ; for ona ^, (& read ona, kids (dpves, cp. &pva =
nj, Ex 23^* etc. ) ; and this was not suggested by d'?'??, lambs, in the parallel
clause, since ffi there renders dnjpTrcurfi^uoi, i.e. Q'^^^. Whether even Cii
is the original text, or a note explaining /a/Zz^^j- (?), D'nD (Du. ) is not quite
certain ; but on the whole the simple term kids is a more likely parallel to
/amds. For the meaning of D'Hof, cp. D'n*D (nhSiy) Ps 66*'' t : ;^^y^, to contain
marrow, be fat ; (nb), marrow. D'nD may be a corruption of Dn'[n3nn], or the
like. Unless a word has dropped out in a (see Marti), b should contain only
three words, i.e. either ona or D'no is superfluous.
18, 19. Woe to those who give themselves up to sin in the
belief that Yahweh will not punish them. — Who draw guilt]
with its punishment near to themselves by their carelessness :
for "|K^D and the parallel terms cords, wagon-ropes, see Hos 1 1*.
The figure of v.^^ is heightened in '^^^ : wagon-ropes are strong,
unbreakable. — 19. Scepticism with regard not to God's existence,
but the reality of His moral government (cp. v.^^), underlies this
mocking speech; cp. Ps lo^*^ 36^"*. Possibly v.^^ has lost an
initial ^VT ; it is rhythmically unlike v.^*.
20. Woe to those who deny the reality of moral distinctions \
ct. 32^ — 21. Cp. 28^' 29!*^ — 22 f. If these verses are really
connected they condemn those who drink heavily and also
pervert justice. Isaiah might very well have pronounced woe
on those who go fuddled into court (cp. 28^^), but this is not
what is done here : these persons acquit the guilty not because
they are too intoxicated to see who is guilty and who innocent,
but because they have taken a bribe from the guilty party ; cp.
1^3, Ex 23^. It is forced, too, to assume that the line of thought
is — Drinking is expensive, and bribes are necessary to pay the
bill. Drunkenness has already been denounced, v.^^; some
transpose v.^s to follow v.^^. — The valiant in mixing strong
drinks'] Heady mixtures are also referred to in Ca 8^, Pr 238O ;
and the spiced wines used by the modern Jews of Hebron and
Jerusalem are such mixtures. See Kennedy in EBi., Wine, § 29.
The sin denounced is certainly not that of mingling water with
the wine ! (Del.). — The guilty . . . the innocent] not the wicked
. . , the righteous (RV); here as in Dt 25I ytn — pnv retain
their original forensic sense. — 24. Quickly as chaff and stubble
catch fire and are reduced to ashes, will judgment fall on those
V. i8-24, 25-30 95
who have neglected to comply with Yahweh's expressed will.
This judgment is not closely related to the sins denounced in
w.22f. . the cause for it is given in what follows in lines c and f.
Thus the v. has a distinct character, and it may not have reached
us in its original form (Du.). Note, too, that the judgment is
described figuratively (c, d); and enforced by comparison with
another and discordant figure (a, b). — Their root shall be as
rottenness^ etc.] stock and shoot will become worthless, the stock
will rot, and the fruit grow mouldy. Cp. Am 2®, Hos 9^*, Mai 3^^
and Eshmunazar's curse " Let them have no root below or fruit
above" {CIS'i, 11. 11, 12). The ms is the budding shoots or
foliage (Nah i*), the bud or blossom (18*). — For they have
despised, etc.] Cp. i*.
x8. Line a is longer than b ; Da. would supply a vb. i| to *avD ; Sievers
would omit nKBn, thereby making v." a single line of 6 accents. — 20. jn^] ^
as in v.*. — 23. o'p'i:*] read p"^^ with (& : note the || ;?n and the following
UDD. — 24. rK prS rp V3K3] the obj. of the infin. first, then the subj. : a rare
cstr., G-K. ii5>&. — nzrh vvTi\ flaming hay (Kon. iii. 306c); or nan^ is ace.
—CiSa/' (sinks down) into (or, as) flame (Marti).— nn*] Dr. §§ 117, X18.
V. 25-30. — 77ie Final Destruction of Ephraim*
yy^26<i-29 contain the conclusion to 9^-10* ; the translation and
critical discussion will be found on pp. 177 fif. Some attribute
yy 26a-c and 80 also to that poem : more probably they are fragments
or editorial additions.
25a-c. The rhythm is obscure (see Sievers), or lacking ; but
the opening words of the v. may be a distich 4:4:
Wherefore the anger of Yahweh was hot against his people.
And he stretched out his hand against him and smote him.
Wherefore\ this v. is not needed to give the consequence of
y 246. f fQj ^2X has been already stated in v.^^*^. Moreover, the
judgment in v.^ is complete — the people are there described as
being destroyed root and branch ; but v.^s* even in itself and still
more as leading up to vv. 20-29 describes a partial judgment — a
destructive but not an absolutely annihilating earthquake : — the
mountains quaked, and their corpses became like refuse in the midst
of the streets. — Against him'\ the people : ct. their in c.
96
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
I
Y 25a-c jj^j^y ]u,g aj^ editorial link to prepare the way for ^^' * by indicating
a partial judgment that has not exhausted Yahweh's power to punish ; it
seems to be in part educed from the refrain itself and in part built up with
the help of frequently repeated details of theophanies and judgments : with
the quaking mountains, cp. 13'^"^*, Am 8^, Mic i**', Nah i^ etc., with corpses
abandoned in the streets, Jer 9^^ 16^ 25^, Zeph i^^ : so Giesebrecht, Beitrdge^
p. 9. Others {e.g. Du. ) hold that ^*'*' is part of a lost strophe of the poem.
^^'di-Tl^. Conclusion of p"^-!©*. — 25d. e. The refrain of
a lost strophe, or of the last strophe in 9'^-io*. — His anger
turned not bacJi\ cp. 12^ Jer 4^, Hos 14^, Ps 85^ etc. — His hand
is still stretched out] to smite and to destroy : cp. Ex 9^^, 2 S 24^^.
— 26-29. This last strophe describes the final destruction of
Ephraim : a nation from the end of the earth is depicted
advancing swiftly, irresistibly on the doomed nation; Ephraim
will resemble the prey of a lion whereof nothing is rescued (ct.
Am 3^2) . it will perish utterly, and none will remain to provoke
Yahweh's anger further. At the end of this strophe, the refrain
(y 25d. e^^ which closes all the other strophes of the poem, would
clearly be out of place.
It has been commonly supposed that Isaiah without naming
them refers to the Assyrians (cp. Am 6^*), the only people on his
horizon that satisfy the terms used. Gressmann (pp. 174 ff.),
indeed, has argued that the description does not strictly apply to
the Assyrians, that it was not written from Isaiah's knowledge
of them and their methods, but was derived from the stereotyped
indefinite descriptions of the Destroying Army which formed
a feature of the (hypothetical) pre-prophetic Eschatology. It is
true that there is nothing so distinctive in the description that
it might not have been applied by later writers to other invaders
— Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, or Romans; but
this is not strange in a brief poetical description of an expected
invasion. That there is anything actually unsuitable to the
Assyrians is a conclusion which appears to rest on prosaic
interpretation (see v.^^b n.).
26a. b. Yahweh summons a nation in arms from the ends of'
the earth. — A signal] cp. nio. 12 jga- placed on a bare height
such a signal was conspicuous afar. In Nu 21^^- D3 signifies
a \o{ty poky in Ezk 27^", Is 33^^ apparently a sail ox pennon ^ here
probably a lofty pole with a flag attached. — A nation afar off]
so ffir ; J^ nations afar offy a reading which has arisen accident-
ally (see phil. n.), or is due to a scribe who wished to assimilate
V. 25-29 97
to 11^* or to introduce the plurality of nations to which later
writers frequently refer. |^ has been explained of the nations
united in the Assyrian army (cp. 14^^ ly^^f. j^Tf. ^q28 ^^s^^ qj. ^s
a conventional eschatological usage (Gressmann). But the
correctness of the reading of dSt is proved by the consistent use
of the singular, rendered by plurals in RV, throughout the rest
of the strophe. The term nation afar off (pniDO ^W) is applied
in Jer 5^* to another people, probably the Scythians. On the
idea of distance, see 10^ n. — Whistle for ii\ summon it; 7** n.
— From the end of the earth] cp. Jer 6^2. The centre of the
Assyrian empire lay some thirty days' journey from Palestine.
Du., Di., and others infer that Isaiah's earth was a small one ;
Gressmann (p. 176), that he here uses the phrase because it was
a technical eschatological expression. Both conclusions are
precarious : Isaiah was a poet. — 26 c-27 a. Assyria comes with
all speed, but without fatigue. With the way in which, while
speaking of the entire armed nation as a single personality (cp.
Numbers^ pp. 265 f.), Isaiah yet thinks of the individuals
composing it, cp. Dt 25^^, Remember how Amalek . . . fell in
with thee, and smote at thy rear all those that were fagged (for
there were such), seeing that thou {i.e. the entire body of the
Israelites) wast faint and weary. — 27b. // slumbers not nor sleeps]
the line is not improbably intrusive (see p. 177), though it is
rather prosaic of Du. to insist that it must be so because the
words could apply to God only (Ps 121^). — 27c. d. The army is
all trim, and, 28a. b, its weapons ready. — Its bows bent] as they
would be only on the point of being used. For the bows and
arrows of Assyrian armies, see 21^* 22^ 37^^; of other armies, e.g.
Jer 5^^. — 28c. d. The cavalry, too, of the Assyrians (cp. 22^^-
36*) sweeps on unhindered and with the pace and onset of the
whirlwind. — Its horses' hoofs are like flint] horses were not shod,
and therefore hard hoofs were a highly prized virtue in them :
Ges. compares the ^^(pXKOTto^ lttttoi of Homer, and gives other
classical and Arabic illustrations. — Its wheels like the whirlwind]
cp., in a similar description, Jer 4^* ; in Is 66^* Yahweh's chariots
are compared to the whirlwind, which leads Gressmann to
consider the present description " fabulous " : poetical rather,
like the dcAAoTroScs tTTTrot, "horses with feet as swift as the
storm," of the Homeric Hymn {in Ven. 217), or Fitzgerald's
" I came like water, and like wind I go." — 29. The form of the
VOL. I — 7
98
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
text is suspicious, see phil. n., but the sense is clear. The
noise of the advancing army, compared in 1 7^2 to the tumult of
mighty waters, is here compared to the dread (Am 3^) roar (njfc^K^)
of a lion (cp. Jer 2^\ Ps 74*) ; the figure thus introduced is de-
veloped, and the utter destruction of Israel to which the poem
works up as its climax is expressed, by the statement that the lion
(Assyria) growling (onr) seizes (THK"'), or holds fast {o.^^. W. R. Smith
Proph.^, p. 24) its prey (Israel), whom no one attempts to deliver.
26. piniD D'W^] D*u may be an error for *u through dittography of D, or
read pmOD *M^ (Roorda, al. mult. ) : cp. Jer 5^* ; after the words had been
wrongly divided the scriptio plena was inserted inpm. — ^p r\'\r\xi\ cp. mrsD ^p,
Jl 4* : mno is adverbial, Vp ace. of the state — hastily as a fleet one, — 28. is]
flinty thus pointed here only, but cp. nx and Arab. Aj. — v^J^ai urra] read
rather with (K vSaVa urw (so Sievers) : this balances the lines better ; "% is
due to dittography of the \ — 29, 30a. There are several considerations
which justify suspicion as to the correctness of the text: (i) The Hebrew
variant JNen, y»xr in v.^** ; (2) the virtual repetition of the first word of v.***
in "^^ (JNB" naKB') : (3) the undue shortness of one of the four lines of v.* —
of 2«bj if D.nn be thrown forward to ", or of * if this line is limited to S"^ pKi ;
(4) the position of onj'i in f& after mK'i ; (5) certain other features of (ffi: :
thus 1^ naKB' = d/>7tw<rti' (al. opjMuxnp), but iHtff''='jrap4<rTr)Kav ; tj'^S'i = ^*r)3aXet,
whereas ^/c/SdXXetJ' nowhere else=DVs; in Is 2^ it renders I'Vcn ; in 22^^,
•^es^is ; (6) the improbable meaning that has to be attached to tt'?S'i in the
present text. There is no means of restoring the exact form of the text, nor
is it very necessary, for the sense is sufficiently established, jkk" is not
improbably a gloss on, or variant of, '^ njNC. — a''?3'i] this is supposed to mean
carries off into security y i.e. the lion carries oflf the prey to a place where it
may eat undisturbed. But the sense of escape^ deliverance is so prominent in
the uses of the root that it is very doubtful whether the Hiphil expressed the
very opposite.
30. The succession of intelligible distichs of regular rhythm
leading up to a climax and a conclusion in v.^^, is here followed
by some exceedingly obscure sentences. Rhythm is not obvious,
but is certainly different from that which prevails in w.^^-^^.
, Render : And he will growl over him in that day as the growling of
the sea ; and if he looks to the earthy then lot distressful Q^ darkness^
and the light has grown dark in the clouds (??) thereof There are
two main theories of interpretation : (i) Some, including Del.,
consider that the subject and object of the growl are the same as
the subject and object in w.^^-^s : Assyria growls, and Israel hears
the ominous sound. The growl, and the unrelieved darkness on
which the eyes of the prey rest, imply the doom of Israel. On
V. 26-30, VI. 99
this interpretation v.*® is parallel to v.^*^ ^ ; it does not carry the
thought as far as v.^^' • ^ ; for this reason, v.^® would probably be
a parallel, not belonging to vv.^c'-^^. (2) Others * consider that
the subject changes : it is Assyria here against whom the growl
is uttered, and Assyria whose outlook is unrelieved gloom. In
this case it is equally difficult to believe that v.^ is the original
sequel to v.**.
»33i] Piel or Niph. Elsewhere Heb. always uses the Hiph. of this vb.
Du. has pointed out the similarity to 8'^ of v.^^ (J^), and the still greater
similarity of v.**^ ffi, which omits iB'n niKi. That the two passages are not
unrelated is probable ; that a process of assimilation has gone on is also
probable. Under the circumstances it is safest to question, or accept very
tentatively, the strange interpretations that have been offered of 5**. »]ny is
probably a mere corruption (cp. 8^ and fflr in both passages). The accentua-
tion and punctuation of MT niKi "xa iB'n embodies an old interpretation (noticed
by Rashi) which took mKi n!« together ia& = moon (n:f = nnD !) and sun, Cond.,
making one or two emendations, attaches 8^*^ ^' ^ to ^-''^,
VI. The Vision and the Call of Isaiah.
There is no reason to question the impression conveyed by
this chapter that we are here reading the prophet's autobiography,
from which we have further extracts in S^-^^ and, perhaps, in
yi-16 'pijg narrative is in prose ; the words spoken by the
seraphim and by Yahweh are in poetical form, perhaps also the
words of the seraph in v.'^. The interrogations of Isaiah in w.^* *
are too brief to show poetical form, and the rhythmical quality of
his first startled cry in v.* is not obvious ; the words may be
read as three lines (so in Kittel's text) of six accents each, but
without parallelism ; Du. divides them into four words of unequal
length. Cond. remarks : " Le style rhythm^, propre k la solennit^
des oracles, convient mal \ la spontaneity de ce cri d'effroi,"
which has some force, and would have more if the cry at the
time formulated itself in spoken words, and if Isaiah necessarily
repeated verbatim in his narrative written subsequently the
words he heard, or the words he uttered, at the time of the
vision. The translation distinguishes the words that seem more
clearly poetical in form.
^ In the year that king Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting on
a throne that was lofty and uplifted, and his skirts filling the
* Du., Marti; cp. E.
100 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Temple. ^ Seraphim were standing above him : each had six
wings — two to cover the face, two the feet, and two to fly with.
3 And they kept calling to each other, and saying.
Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh of Hosts,
The whole earth is full of his glory.
* And the foundations (?) of the threshold trembled at the voice
of them that called, and the House began to fill with smoke.
^ And I said, " Woe is me ! for I am undone ; for I am a
man of unclean lips, and am dwelling in the midst of a people of
unclean lips : for it is the King, Yahweh of Hosts, whom mine
eyes have seen." ® Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a
red-hot stone in his hand, which with tongs he had taken off" the
altar, '' and with it he touched my mouth, and said, Lo ! this has
touched thy lips : thy iniquity will pass away (from thee), and
thy sin will be expiated. ^ And I heard the voice of the Lord,
saying,
Whom shall I send?
And who will go for us?
And I said, Here am I : send me. • Then he said. Go, and
say unto this people,
Hearken on, but understand not!
See, yea, see, but perceive not!
1* Make dull the heart of this people,
And make its ears heavy, and plaster over its eyes;
Lest it see with its eyes and hear with its ears.
And its heart understand, and it be healed once more.
11 And I said : How long, O Lord ? And he said,
Until they lie waste —
Cities without inhabitant
And houses without human beings —
And the ground be left a desolation;
12 And Yahweh remove men far away,
And the forsaken places in the land be many:
18 And though a tenth yet (remain) in it :
It must again be exterminated.
Like an oak or a terebinth, wherein at the felling is a stump.
On a day within a few months of the death of Uzziah,
VI. lOI
though whether before or after that event is uncertain, Isaiah
came up to the Temple. And falling into an ecstasy, he saw
and heard more than he had been wont to see and hear — things
that others who were present that day in the Temple Courts
neither saw nor heard : he saw Yahweh in kingly state ; in His
Holy presence he felt his own uncleanness ; he realised the
power of Yahweh to forgive immediately without sacrifice or gift
on man's part (ct. i"-^*) ; he heard, understood, and obeyed His
call to service.
This is record oi fact] but the fact is spiritual experience,
which must be described, though inadequately, by means of
material terms and pictures.
The central fact is the decision of the prophet to deliver
Yahweh's message to His people ; and this decision was taken on
a single particular day. Yet, though we cannot be certain, we
may somewhat safely assume that the vision of Yahweh, bring-
ing with it the clear apprehension on the prophet's part of
Yahweh's purpose concerning him, was the culmination of a
longer experience; not, we may well believe, for the first time
on that day had he felt his own unworthiness, or contrasted the
moral uncleanness of his people with the ethical holiness of
God (vv.*- ^) ; he had been anxious to speak to his people, but
had not yet been sure of the divine commission to speak, nor
certain what to say. Some such experience before the call is
suggested, if not by one or two details in the account of the
day of decision, yet certainly by the analogy of the experience
of other great religious personalities — of Mohammed, for
example, who had long felt that his people were astray from
God before the particular day when the call came to him,
" Recite, in the name of thy Lord, recite " ( Kor. 96^).
It is not only probable that the narrative thus presupposes
a religious experience of which it records the culmination, but it
is possible that, as some have supposed, it is coloured by the
prophet's experience after the day of decision. It is generally
held, and certainly probable, that this account of his call was not
written by Isaiah immediately after the event, but some years
later, when it was natural to define the year to which the record
refers. It may be then that the terms of the divine commission
in vv.^*^ reflect the discouraging effect on Isaiah of years of
fruitless warning (but see below).
I02 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
1-4. The Vision. — I. In the year that king Uzziah died]
for this method of dating, see 1428, and cp. KAT\ p. 323. The
Hebrew year ran from autumn to autumn {EBi. 5365). Between
two autumns King Uzziah died : between the same two autumns
Isaiah received his call. That is all that can be inferred with
certainty from the clause. It leaves the question open whether
Isaiah received his call before (cp. i^) or after Uzziah's death.
Early Babylonian usage defined the remainder of a year after
the accession of a new ruler as " the year in which N. [the new
ruler's predecessor] entered into the house of his father " : later,
when the system of numbering the years of a king from the
1st of Nisan after his accession prevailed, i.e, from about 1500
B.C., the broken year before that ist of Nisan was known as
" the beginning of his reign " (E. Meyer, Gesch. d, Alterthums\
I. ii. pp. 330 f.). If Hebrew usage followed contemporary
Assyrian usage, Isaiah's call took place before the death of
Uzziah. Uzziah died within a few years of 740 b.c. : some
time before 735 (cp. 7^), but after 738, if Uzziah (Azariah) is
correctly identified with the Azriyau of Jaudi mentioned by
Tiglath-pileser in his annals of the year 738. If that identifica-
tion is fallacious (see Introduction), Uzziah's death may have
occurred before 740, yet not so early as 753 (Jerome, cp.
T>q\.).— Uzziah] so (in>Ty) i^ 7^, 2 K 1532.34^ 2 Ch 261^- 272, and
(nny) 2 K 1513-30, Hos i^, Am i\ Zee 14^, perhaps also Uzzah
(2 K 2118-26); but Azariah (nnry), 2 K 1421 15I. 7. i7. 23. 27^ j q^
312, and (innry) 2 K 156- ». Unless the king bore both names,
the distribution of the evidence in OT favours Uzziah. Azariah
would be confirmed if the identification of this king with Azriyau
of Jaudi (last note) were certain.
/ saw the Lord] There is no elaborate description of the
divine being here (cp. Am 7^ 9I; ct. Ezk i, Dn 7^); but the
very terseness heightens the impression that is given of the
ideas that dominated Isaiah at this moment; he is absorbed
with the thought of the kingliness of Yahweh ; he sees nothing
but Yahweh enthroned : his eyes cannot linger on the divine
face (cp. Ex 33^^'^^), they fall instinctively to the skirts of His
robes which fill the Temple, — On a throne] Isaiah, like Micah
the Morashtite (i K 22^^), sees Yahweh in kingly state, enthroned
on a conspicuously lofty throne. — His skirts] this, however
aesthetically unsatisfactory in English, and not train (RV), is the
VI. 1-4 I03
•
correct rendering of O^b)^; for the D^inB^ are the loose-flowing
parts of the robe or upper garment (i'^VD, Ex 28^), especially the
part from the waist downward (cp. Jer 1322.26^ ^ah 3*); here the
word is used of the robe as it flows down over the knees of
Yahweh seated on the throne, and reaches to and covers the
floor. This boldly anthropomorphic touch was euphemised
away by the ancient translators : (& renders Ais glory (cp. Jn
12^1), 2r the brilliance of his glory, U (following Symm., Theod.)
quae sub ipso erant. Ibn Ezra gains the same end by an interest-
ing, though improbable, explanation ; he refers the suffix to the
throne, and sees in the skirts the loose hanging draperies with
which it is " the custom of kings " to have their thrones covered.
Filling the Temple\ i.e. covering the entire floor, unless, indeed,
we could suppose with Jer. and some Jewish commentators that
the throne was lifted up high above the Temple, and that the
Temple itself was filled by the flowing skirts ; but had this been
the meaning, covering the Temple would seem the more appropri-
ate description. — The Temple'] in Hebrew, as in Sumerian (e-gal),
from whence through the Assyrian (e-kallu) the Hebrews
borrowed the word, iaST denotes primarily a great house, a royal
residence, a palace (i K 21^, 2 K 20^', Pr 3028) j \^yj^^ \^ actual
usage it more frequently refers to the " House of Yahweh " or
Temple, whether to the whole (i S i® 3*, 2 K 23* 24^^, Hag 2^^,
Neh 6^*'), or the front and larger chamber (i K 6^^^, Ezk 41^) as
distinguished from the smaller inner chamber (l*m). In one
passage clearly (Ps 11*), in others (Mic i', cp. vv.*^, Ps 18^ 29*,
cp. wv}^') probably, the term i)3M is used of Yahweh*s heavenly
residence; but in none of these passages is the sense temple
rather than palace required. At a later period the idea of a
Temple in heaven was familiar in certain Jewish pircles ; this can
be first traced clearly at the end of the 2nd cent B.a (Test. Levi
5I), and then frequently in John's Apocalypse (e.g, 'j\ ct. n^®).
That such an idea existed in Israel in the time of Isaiah there
is no direct proof, and the attempt to prove the early existence
in Babylonia of such an idea has so far met with doubtful
success. But even though such an idea may have been
familiar to Isaiah, and though, in that case, he might have used
the term f)3\T of the heavenly as well as of the earthly Temple, it
is not to any such heavenly temple, as many * have supposed,
* E, Koppe, Del., Di., Jeremias (ATAC^, p. 565, BNT6S).
104 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
that Isaiah here refers, but to the Temple of Jerusalem * which
was daily before his eyes. He sees in vision no strange and
unfamiliar scene, but a long familiar scene transfigured. This
interpretation is favoured by (i) the unqualified reference to the
temple and the altar (v.^), contrasted with the careful qualification
(" the temple that is in heaven ") of such writers as the authors
of the Testaments and the Apocalypse of John, and (2) by the
analogy of the visions of Amos (9^), where an earthly altar and an
earthly temple are unmistakably the scene of vision, and of
Ezekiel (8^ 10*). Nor can it be safely urged in favour of the
alternative interpretation, that "the presence of the seraphim
is a sufficient indication that the scene is in heaven . . if Elisha's
servant, when his eyes were opened, saw horses and chariots of
fire in Dothan (2 K 6^'^), Isaiah, with eyes open in vision, might
well see seraphim in Jerusalem. It is indeed the very fact that
he sees Yahweh holding court in Jerusalem that gives full point
to his alarm ; it is the actual presence of the Holy One of Israel
in the midst of Israel and not remote in heaven that spells
doom to the unclean people ; the sinners in Sion must needs be
alarmed (cp. 33^*)." t A persistent Jewish exegetical tradition, as
represented indirectly by Jer. and directly by Rashi, explains
that Isaiah saw Yahweh " sitting on his throne in heaven with
his feet in the (earthly) Temple, ' the footstool of his feet ' "
(Rashi); cp. "non ipse Dominus implebat Templum cuius
coelum thronus est et terra scabellum pedum eius . . sed ea quae
sub pedibus eius erant implebant Templum " (Jer.). — 2. Beside
Yahweh stand seraphim : since He is seated and they stand-
ing, they rise adove him — not //, viz. the Temple (Jer.). Each
seraph has six wings (cp. Rev 4^), one pair to screen their faces
from the unbearable brightness of the divine presence (cp. Ex 3*,
1 K 19^^), one to conceal their feet, i.e. their nakedness (so
720 36^2 K^re; cp. "their bodies," Ezk i"), from the divine eye
(Ex 2o26 28'^2ff.)^ and one to use in flight (cp. y.^). Again, Isaiah
only particularises what closely concerns him at the moment.
His allusions to the seraphim serve to emphasise his thought of
Yahweh's majesty and kingliness ; if these lofty and superhuman
*Lowth, Ges., Du., Cheyne {SBOT i^SL), Skinner, Whitehouse.
t Cited from an article by the present writer, "The Heavenly Temple
and the Heavenly Altar " {ExJ>., May, June, 1908, pp. 385-402, 530-546), in
which the points summarised in the text are discussed at length.
VI. 2 I05
beings must screen their faces, how much more mortals (cp. Job
4^''^^') : so again not slowly with feet, but with the rapidity of
flight they move to do Yahweh's bidding, ffi represents the
seraphim as standing round Yahweh {kvkXu} avrov), feeling
perhaps that the majesty of Yahweh requires that He should,
even when seated, tower above His attendants. But to Isaiah,
Yahweh appeared majestic in size and attended by beings
equally colossal. It is unnecessary to press the sense of loy so
as to insist that the seraphim stood on their feet (though see
next clause) : the vb. is certainly used of objects or beings
without feet (Nu 14^*). But the attempt made by Del., Di., Che.
(in /V), and others to prove that it means " to hover," is not
successful.
Many interesting questions are raised by this description which it was no
concern of Isaiah's to satisfy, and which modem investigation has only
partially illumined. What was the form of the seraphim ? Were they human ?
Were they serpentine? How many were attending Yahweh? As to their
form : they stand (^Dy, see above), and have feet (v.^) and hands (v.*), and
therefore, if originally connected with serpents, they have acquired non-
serpentine characteristics. Beings half human half animal in appearance
figure in later descriptions (Ezk i. Rev 4'). The connection of the
seraphim with serpents is suggested by the name itt, which, meaning io
burity is used in Nu 2i"' of serpents, apparently so called from the burning
sensation produced by their bite (see Numbers^ p. 277), and in Is 14^ 30* of
flying serpents (|| trnj, npsK). According to 2 K 18*, at the time of Isaiah's
vision there still stood (probably in the Temple Court) the bronze serpent,
or seraph, the erection of which popular tradition attributed to Moses (Nu
21^*) ; on this object Isaiah's eye may have been resting just before he fell
into ecstasy. We may infer, if not with certainty yet with probability, from
v.* that the seraphim of Isaiah's vision were stationed about the threshold
of the temple, and by a further inference may be led to suspect that the
seraphim belong to the class of guardians of thresholds — that part of the
dwelling with which so much religious or superstitious awe has been widely
associated (H. Clay Trumbull, The Threshold Covenant^ 1890) — who repel
intruders, or, as rather here (v.'**), admit under fit conditions to the presence
of, or communication with, the deity. Some analogy both to the name and
to this function of the seraphim has often been sought in the Egyptian Sefr
(demotic Serref), a winged griffin guarding an Egyptian tomb ; see, further,
BDB, Ges-B., EBi.^ and DBy s.v. On the other hand, the connection
sought by some Assyriologists (Del., Hommel) between D*£nB' and Sarrabu (or
^arrapu), a name said to have been borne by the god Lugalgira (? Nergal)
in the westland, is denied by Zimmern {KAT^ 415)- The number of
seraphs that attend Yahweh in Isaiah's vision is uncertain; the phrase
nr^M ni (v.*) rather suggests two (see phil. n.), the plural D'fl*w (not O'Bnr "w)
in V.*, on the other hand, rather suggests many. Early Christian interpreters
l66 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
commonly thought of two, and allegorised : the two seraphim were the Son
and the Holy Spirit attending the Father — a view not unnaturally rejected
by Jerome as "impious." The view that the two seraphim represented the
Old and New Testament found more favour. Jewish interpreters differed as
to the number — Dun paam d'w ohDK b" (Ibn Ezra).
3. The constantly repeated (K"ipl) refrain of the seraphim
sung antiphonally (n? hi< riT). For other allusions to songs sung
by heavenly beings, see Ps 29^- ^- ^, Job 38*^, Rev 5^^- y^i^-. — Ho/y]
thrice repeated for the sake of emphasis: cp. Jer 7* 222^, Ezk
21^2^ One of the main tasks of the prophets was to transform,
and especially to ethicise, current religious terms : so Amos
dealt with the " Day of Yahweh," so Hosea with " the marriage
of Yahweh," and so Isaiah ethicises the word " Holy." Originally
a term without, in Isaiah's hands it became charged with, moral
import, so that when he speaks of the " Holy One of Israel " he
thinks of a power that executes justice and demands just dealing
of His worshippers. How unethical a term the prophets found it
may be most briefly suggested by the fact that the religious
prostitution which Hosea denounced was carried on by " holy "
men and women (see, further, JVum^erSj pp. 209-2 11). In Isaiah's
conception we see points of contact with the popular thought ;
with him, too, it is dangerous to approach that which is Holy
(v.^) ; with him, too, a common quality is needed in the Holy
Being and those who approach Him ; but with Isaiah this common
quality is freedom from sin (DNDn) : what this in turn is may be
seen by noting such passages as i^^^* ; it is moral, not ceremonial ;
it is acquired not by expiatory sacrifices, but by turning from evil
to good, by executing justice and cultivating mercy (cp. also
^7 (i6)j One of a sinful nation whose lips are rendered unclean,
unfit to speak to Yahweh, Isaiah is himself sinful, unable to
address Yahweh; he does not even, like the publican of the
parable (Lk iS^^), cry to God for forgiveness; his lips open, but
in self-address — " Wretched man that I am." But freed from
sin (v."^), Isaiah is fitted to be entrusted with the secret of
Yahweh (cp. Am 3^^), or, as we might express it, for communion
with God. This holy, moral power which is revealed to Isaiah
in his vision is Lord of the (heavenly) hosts, and the whole world
reflects the lustre of His righteousness. History, human life is
under the government of a righteous power that rules the world,
and is not devoted merely to satisfying the unethical desires of
VI. 3, 4 lo;
a petty nation or tolerating its sins. Isaiah is no exponent, like
the author of chs. 40-55, of an intellectual monotheism, but he is
possessed by the moral thought that in due time demanded an
explicit monotheistic statement. — His glory\ here, as in Nu 1421,
Ps 72^* 968, of Yahweh's self-revelation in His dealing with men.
4. The Temple quakes to its foundations (?) with the sound of
the song of the seraphim, just as mountains tremble when
Yahweh appears (Ex 19^^, Jg 5*); whether a heavenly temple
would have quaked at what in a heavenly temple should have
been an ordinary occurrence, may be doubted. — The foundations
of the thresholds^ the exact sense of the Hebrew phrase is
uncertain : see phil. n. — Them that called] i.e. the seraphim,*
who alone as yet have called (v.*) : the sing. part. (N"i1pn) is used
collectively as are other sing, participles elsewhere ; see, e.g.^ Jos
6^- ^, Gn 4^0; G-K. 126m; Kon. iii. 256. Others have given to
the part, a sing, sense and referred it, inappropriately, to Yahweh
thundering out "welcome" to Isaiah (Ew.), or expressing anger
at the sin of the people (Di.). — The house] the Temple: cp.
I K 6** * etc. — Began to fill with smoke] in spite of " cloud "
rather than smoke being mentioned there, Ezk 10* seems the
nearest parallel, and to suggest that the smoke here is the cloud
that so commonly accompanied theophanies — Ex 14^* 40^4,
I K 8»f-, Is 45 (cp. EBi., Pillar of cloud, Theophany). Only for
a moment does Isaiah see the unveiled glory of Yahweh. Others
explain the smoke as the breath of the seraphim (cp. Ps 18*:
so Du.), or as the smoke of Yahweh's anger (Ps 74^ So^ (^), Dt
29"; Di.).
I. nmin . . . xvwi\ Dr. Tenses, 127/3. (ffir begins with koX iyhero to
establish a connection, which did not originally exist, with ch. 5. — "inn] here
and in v.* many MSS read ni.T : so in 3^'* ^^. — Hvy\ m] not grammatically
parallel to 2»\ and, as in 57^", directly descriptive of Yahweh, but (as in (&
clearly) attributives of kd3. — 2. i*? "ryDO] adove hint, cp. 14", Dn I2'**, Gn
22^ ; S Sv'^'Ci loy is not merely the same as Sv noy, to stand in attendance on —
Jg 3^^, Jer 36"^ (reading hv for Vyo). — n03'] this and the following imperfects
describe what is liable to occur (Dr. 33/3), really therefore the purpose of the
wings, rather than what Isaiah actually saw frequently occur (Dr. Tenses,
30 a). — 3. nONi . . . xnpi] frequentatives : Dr. § 120, G-K. 1 12-^. — nt *?{< ni] the
one to the other; cp. Ex 14^''. In similar correlative usages ni refers definitely
to one of two (Gn 29^', Ex 14''®, i K 3^), or to a single individual of a series
(i K 22*", Is 44*^). In Ps 75^ nt appears to correspond to the English
* So €r, Ges., Del., Du., Marti.
I08 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
indefinite one . . . another: cp. the second nr in Job x^'^-'^^, but to the
Hebrew mind the nr was probably vivid and definite. Certainly rw ^k ni is
not the normal Hebrew for "to one another," which is expressed by the
plural vb. with in^T W tf'X (G-K. I39<?). Nor again would it normally express
" the one group to the other group" : this should be n"?** *?« n'?N (cp. Dt 2.*]^^-^
2 S 2^^, I K 20^, Dn 12^). Unless nj •?« ni here implies i?zy<7 seraphs only,
we can only find a somewhat inadequate parallel in Ec '^'^ where one nr refers
to a pi. (c-;«<n '33) and the other to a collective (nDna). — nuD \-\^Ti '?3 nVd]
cp. 8^, and for the cstr., Driver, § 189. Possibly nx^D should be read : cp.
(HBr^ST, and see Nestle in ZATW^ 1905, 218 ff.— 4. D'sjon didn] hdn (apart from
'\f. — cubit and, in 2 S 8^, mother-city) here only. It has been explained as a
metaphorical development from □«, mother, and htnce foundations ; uncertain ;
but cp. Assyr. ammatu. ^0 regularly means threshold, though ^2ICD has also
the meaning porchy doorpost. (& renders the two words by the single word
viripdvpov, lintel (cp. 2rU,S). Gra. suggests /^[jJdn, supporters, i.t. pillars
(2 K 18^^), which brings us back, so far as the mt aning goes, very nearly to the
posts of the doors of AV, which rests on a philologically questionable Jewish
exegesis ; cp. Rashi. — kVd'] impf. of incipient action : Dr. §§ 26, 27.
5-8. The effect of the vision on Isaiah. — 5. Having
in vv.^'* described what he saw, the vision proper, Isaiah passes
on to speak of the effect on himself ; the alarm which he felt was
the effect of the whole of what he saw, not merely of the last or
any other single detail. He is a sinful man, member of a sinful
nation, and yet he has seen God! cp. Lk 5*, Ex 33^^, Jg 1322.
He is in the presence of God, but has not that cleanness of lips
which they need who would call upon God (Zeph 3^). He
cannot pray for himself, or his sinful folk. — For I am undone]
for the vb. see, tf.^., 15^, Hos 10''. An ancient theory that Isaiah
was struck dumb for not rebuking Uzziah's presumption (2 Ch
2 6i6flF.^ was based on the confusion of the roots noT and W01 {to
be silent) : hence U quia tacui^ Aq. ia-iwTrrja-a, cp. C and possibly
ffi^'s KaravivvyixjcLi. — 6, 7' ^^^ Isaiah does not find himself driven
forth on account of his sinfulness : on the other hand, the same
vision which had intensified his consciousness of sin is, before it
vanishes, to assure him of the removal of his sin. One of the
seraphim, leaving his fellow(s) at the threshold, flew to the altar
which stood just in front of the porch of the Temple, and, taking
off the altar a glowing coal, or stone, continued his flight across
the court of the Temple to the place where Isaiah stood, perhaps
near its entrance, and touched his unclean lips with it, purging
them with fire (cp. Mai 32^-, Lk 3^^) and making them clean ; his
Ups being cleansed he can address Yahweh (v.^). — Thy iniquity
«.
VI. 4-9 I09
will depart] the sense of the pf. with waw Conv. must be future
here (Dr. 119 a): EV is taken atvay^ is wrong both in respect of
the tense and the passive vb. ; ID in Heb. is intrans. to remove^
depart, pass away. For such quasi-personification of sin as the
expression implies, cp. 2 K 7^, Iniquity (punishment) will find,
overtake, us (iJXVDl) ; cp. (with riNDn as subj.) Nu 32^3. — g. The
sense of forgiveness in Isaiah is immediately accompanied by the
desire for service; cp. the prayer of Ps 5113-15(11-13). purification
from sin has set him free to understand Yahweh's will ; he now
hears Him consulting the members of His court (i K 22^®^-) and
asking who shall be His messenger ; Isaiah offers himself. The
passage is important for the light it throws on the nature of the
prophetic consciousness and inspiration. Isaiah becomes a
prophet owing to no physical compulsion, but by a perfectly
free choice, or at least all that compels him is his sympathy with
the purposes of Yahweh ; cp. Am 3^''.
5. 'n'Dnj] Houtsma in ZATW, 1907, p. 57, conjectures 'Ji'P^j = 'nKDOJ. —
6. ritDTi] also i K 19" — D'*3n (njy), (bread baked on) hot stones ; cp. Syr.
(^ \h, bread baked on ashes ; Ar. /i«^ •» « hot stone, nsjn, pavement
(Ezk4o"), is from a different root, /iitf 1, k2)f5; see BDB. (Br rightly
&v6pa^. — 7. yj'i] MT rightly points as Hiphil; the unemphatic object is
omitted.— m] neuter; see Kon. iii. 45.-8. 13^] €r, perhaps to avoid the
question raised by |§ (see above), substitutes vphs rbv \ahv toOtop : cp. v.^
9-13. The message entrusted to Isaiah by Yahweh.
— The doom of the people is inevitably fixed : there is to be no
further healing of their sick state (cp. !**•) ; let them now persist
in their insensitivity (cp. i*) to the voice and will of God : even
the prophet's preaching is but to render them blinder, deafer,
and more insensitive. The gradual hardening and ultimately
fatal effect on character of continued disobedience to the voice
of God is here stated in the bold, direct, dramatic speech of
prophecy. The doings of God will still be before the people,
the voice of God will still speak through the prophets and in the
events of the time, but they will not understand ! — T/iis people]
so also 8^' 12 9I6 2811- 1* 29^3. u contemptuously, and always,
except in 9^^, of the unbelief or superstitions of the people (Du.).
The phrase is ambiguous, and raises the question whether at his
call Isaiah was charged with a mission to Judah only or to the
Northern kingdom only, or to both kingdoms. Against limiting
no COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
the phrase to Judah is the fact that much of Isaiah's earHer
prophecies was actually addressed in whole or in part to the
Northern kingdom (g"^^- 17^^- 28^-*). Hackmann (pp. 52-54,
70-76) has argued strongly that the phrase here refers to Israel
only; he points out that the prophecies clearly belonging to
Isaiah's early life are mainly devoted to Israel, that the fate of
Israel predicted in them is along the lines of the preaching of
Amos and Hosea, and agrees with the terms of the commission
here — total destruction ; that, on the other hand, Isaiah's attitude
towards Judah as depicted in ch. 7 f. does not correspond to the
commission. The fatal objection to this otherwise attractive
theory, which is insufficiently criticised by Cheyne {Introd.
p. 28), is that the people in v.* cannot well be an entirely
different body from the people of v.^, and that in v.* the people
must at least include Judah. But if we must conclude that
"this people" includes Judah as well as Israel, or even, as surely
v.^ suggests, refers particularly to Judah, how is the unrelieved
pessimism as to the national future to be accounted for in view
of ch. 7 ? And how on any interpretation is the absence of
any reference to Isaiah's fundamental (7^ n.) doctrine of the
remnant to be explained ? Cheyne (p. 29) finds it sufficient to
assume that ch. 6 was originally intended as a prologue to 7^-8^*
(in the course of which the doctrine of the remnant is developed) ;
others, following Ew., think that this record of Isaiah's call having
been written long after his call, was influenced by the darker
outlook of a later time. The difficulty is not completely over-
come, but escape is least of all to be found by retaining, against
the evidence of ffi, the last clause of y?^. — Dull the heart']
Heb. make fat ^ i.e. insensitive; cp. Ps 119^®. — Plaster over its
eyes] as with the sticky secretion that exudes from diseased eyes.
— And it be healed once more] as it had been wont to be healed
by Yahweh (Hos 6^). (R replaces the indefinite subj. of |^ by
the ist pers., And I heal them. EV, " and turn again \i.e. to God]
and be healed," follows the erroneous punctuation of MT. —
II-13. How long, asks Isaiah, is this hardening process to
proceed ? The answer comes clearly : till the nation be no
more, till it be destroyed root and branch, and the country which
it now inhabttfs be left full of uninhabited ruins and untilled : cp.
22^*. — Be left a desolation] so 6r; "^be wasted into a desolation.
— 13. And Yahweh remove men] Yahweh will not Himself be
VI. 9-13 m
destroyed, as the people supposed, in the destruction of His
people ; He is Himself the cause of it. Israel will vanish ;
Yahweh will remain. The land of Israel will become a desola-
tion, but the whole earth (v.*) will still reflect Yahweh's righteous-
ness ; the very desolation of Yahweh's country will speak of His
righteous anger, which will not tolerate the sins of those whom
He had chosen to be peculiarly His own (cp. ^^'"^f Am 32). This
thought remains implicit in the entire suggestion of the vision
(cp. especially v.*), even if with Marti we were to consider v.^^f.
a post-exilic explanatory addition to v.^^ ; but his arguments are
hardly quite conclusive ; for it is perhaps hypercritical to claim
that men cannot be removed (v. 12) from an already (v.^^)
desolated country ; and the use of Yahweh in words attributed
to Yahweh — particularly at some little distance from the
beginning of the speech, is hardly sufficient by itself to prove
that v. ^2 was not the original continuation of v.^^ — 13. Even
though a fraction of the population, a tenths is left behind in
Judah when Yahweh exiles the rest (v.^^a^, it will not escape, but
it too must be exterminated^ as when a tree is cut down, the
stump which remains is also destroyed — such seems the intention
of the text. If the last clause of the v. were really original^ and
not a late gloss added to J^ after the time of ffi, it would be
necessary to suppose that the announcement of judgment closes
with the word exterminated ("»J?3) ; and that then a figure of hope
is abruptly introduced — As an oak or a terebinth wherein at
felling is a stump, so the holy seed is its stump, from which a new
and holy Israel will spring ; such in any case is the meaning of
the annotator who added the last clause. With the phrase holy
seed, cp. the post-exilic ^inpT^ int of Ezr 9^ and DMi'N ynt, Mai 2^^.
9. yiDtr iyD»] G-K. 113^.-10. aif'}] point so, connecting closely with
what follows (cp. v.^'), not n^f'i (MT). — Kflni] and one heal; indef. subj. —
G-K. I44df. — II. nKB'n] (K AcaTa\et00^6Tat=nNfp. f^ is a poor repetition
of the vb. in the first line ; MT attempts to create a difference by pointing
this form Niphal; but note the different sense of Niphal in 17^^. — 13. .Tn'ni
lyaS] cstr. as in 5**, but the meaning of nyn is different : here to exterminate
(cp. 4*, 2 S 4^S Dt 13^' etc. ), there to depasture. Budde, indeed {New Worlds
1895, p. 12), adopts the latter meaning here — it shall be for {cattle) to feed on^
and sees in the words a promise that Judah will return to pastoral life and
the divine favour. — 13. p^KDi nVx^] probably neither term denotes a distinct
species of tree (i'* n.): the combination of the two terms is curious: Kit.
tentatively proposes the omission of jiSkoi : note that about 100 Hebrew MSS
(and ? (!&) read na, not 03, in the next clause.
112 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
VII. i-VIII. 1 8. — Incidents and Prophecies at the time of the
Syro-Epraimitish War (735-734 B.C.). fl
Special Literature: — F. Giesebrecht, *'Die Immanuel Weissagung," in
TSKy 1888, pp. 217-264 (in the main a detailed discussion of ch. 8); A. B.
Davidson, "Immanuel" (in £>B) ; A. S. Peake, "Immanuel" (in Z)ici. of
Christ and the Gospels). See, further, pp. 135 f.
This section consists of {a) narratives in prose relating
Isaiah's interview with Ahaz 7^"^^, his use of the name Maher-
shalal-hash-baz, 8^"*, and his use of his disciples and his children,
816-18 ;'(/^) poems, 717-25 g^-io-n-iB; {c) prose notes (S^- n)
prefixed by Isaiah to the last two of these poems.
In 8i'i8 both the prose style and the autobiographical
character of ch. 6 re-appear, see Z^-^- ^- n- i^-is ; but the narrative
parts of ch. 7 speak of Isaiah in the 3rd person. That Isaiah
spoke of himself in immediately consecutive passages, now in the
ist, now in the 3rd pers. (Di.), is not very likely. More probably
the use of the 3rd pers. indicates either {a) that the author of
7 1-16 was not Isaiah himself, but that the passage like chs. 20 and
36-39 is biographical ; or {b) that 71-16, originally like chs. 6, 8
autobiographical, was modified by an editor who added v.^, and
for reasons no longer obvious substituted the 3rd for the ist
person. Of these alternatives the second is favoured by a usage
(^3 IV) characteristic of Isaiah in 7^ and by the general similarity
of style throughout the narratives of chs. 7 f. ; cp. 7^ and 86, 7^
and 816, 7I6 and 8^, 7!*- 16 and Z^^'. Isaiah's memoirs must then
have suffered a similar fortune to those of Ezra, surviving in
part intact (cp. e.g. Ezr 9), in part modified by an editor who
substituted the 3rd pers. for the ist (cp. e.g. Ezr 10).
The prophecy in 8i^-23 is scarcely derived from Isaiah's
memoirs, still less 9i"6; nor again within 6I-8I8 is 717-26 go
derived ; see below on the several passages.
VII. I. A summary statement of the ill-success of
the operations of Syria and Israel against Judah. — The
V. is logically out of place, the hostile approach of the Syro-
Ephraimitish army to Jerusalem and the failure of the attack
are events which occurred after what is related in vv.^-i^. The
verse with some verbal variations not affecting the sense occurs
also in 2 K i6^ It was probably derived from Kings (cp. chs.
36-39) by the editor of the present passage ; ct. the genealogical
description of Ahaz with Isaiah's simple reference to Uzziah in 6I.
VII. I-VIII. 1 8 113
The priority of Is 7^, at one time commonly assumed or maintained, is
now generally abandoned, but Di. still defended it on these grounds: (i)
2 K 16' stands very isolated ; (2) Is 7' recjuires some introductitm ; (3) the
omission of n'Vy at the end of the v. in Kings is less correct ; iVa* (Ki.) is easier
than ^3' (Is.)» ^^^ therefore presumably secondary. Of these arguments the
second is the weightiest, and indeed it should be recognised that something
once preceded and introduced v.^. Either that introduction was lost through
mutilation before the passage came into the hands of the editor, or for
some reason unknown he preferred to substitute for it 2 K 16". The first
argument is of little weight ; 2 K 16" may stand isolated, but Is 7^ is logically
out of place (see above). As to the 3rd argument, the reading ^3' in Is. is
uncertain : dSc has the //. The additional clause inK Sy nj«i of Ki. is not
strikingly like an editorial expansion to improve the bad style of Is. ; the
awkwardness of Is. is rather due to abbreviation.
And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz . . . king of JudaH\
this rather vague time definition was correctly inferred by the
editor from what immediately precedes 2 K 16^; the phrase-
ology is not that of a contemporary, who would have said " At
the beginning of the reign of Ahaz," or " In the first year of
Ahaz." — Re^on\ EV Rezin (see phil. n.). Reson was king of
Damascus as early as 738, for he is mentioned by Tiglath-pileser
in his annals of that year ; but Pel^ah's accession must be placed
later, for the king of Israel who paid tribute to Tiglath-pileser in
738 was Menahem, and between Menahem and Peljiah intervened
the reign of Pekahiah. — Went up\ so regularly of motion towards
Jerusalem (cp. e.g. 2^, Ezr 7^, Jn 2^8, ct. Lk 9^^), departure from
Jerusalem being expressed by to go down (i K 22^, Ac 8*). —
Reson went up ... to Jerusalem to attack it, but could not attack
it] 2 K 16* runs: "Reson . . . went up to Jerusalem to attack
(it), and laid siege to Ahaz {& ' to it '), but could not attack it."
The meaning of Kings is clear : Reson and Pekah reached
Jerusalem and invested it, but were unable to proceed to actual
assaults on the city : no sooner was the investment complete
than the besiegers were called away. The meaning of Is. is the
same, though it is more awkwardly expressed : the last clause
is more specific than "they could not prevail against it" (RV),
which might imply failure after a long siege; it means that they
were not even able to make any active assault on the city. The
speedy withdrawal from Jerusalem may be attributed to news
having reached the besiegers that the Assyrians were advancing
westwards. In 735, as in the two previous years, Tiglath-pileser
had been campaigning to the S.E. and N. of Assyria, i.e. in parts
VOL. I. — 8
4
114 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
remote from Syria ; to this period we may attribute the raid on
Judah in the last year(s) of Jotham (2 K 15^^). In the early
spring of 734 we may suppose that the allied armies marched
on Jerusalem, but had scarcely laid siege to the city when news
reached them that Tiglath-pileser was moving westward; his
objective in this year was, as we know from the Eponym
Canon, Philistia. Starting about the same time (cp. 2 S 11^),
Reson might well traverse the distance (about 140 miles) from
Damascus to Jerusalem, and prepare to lay siege to the latter
city, before he received news, that this year the Assyrian king
was marching from Nineveh on his own capital; the military
route from Nineveh to Damascus would be about 550 miles (cp.
EBt. 5167).
^3* H^^ . , . npsi . . , pjn n^y] if Sa* is correct, the waw before nps is waw
concomitantiae^ which in Arabic requires the ace. after it — Re^6n with Pekah
went up and was unable ; the instances in Heb. are at best few ; see G-K.
1 54a footnote ; BDB 253a. In this case Reson appears as the principal
person. More probably Vd"- should be read ^p; with 2 Ki., |^ and ffir, and (15
here: then nSy is sing, as preceding the subj. ; G-K. 146/". — pn] "^ \sr\ wjis
erroneously amplified in 1^^ to \'sr\ instead of pxn ; €r, "Paao-wj/, 'Pao-o-wy (with
late variants 'Paacii' accommodated to |^^), and the Assyrian Ra-§un-nu alike
indicate that the final vowel was 0. — n'^y nDnf^D"?] 2 Ki., inN •?]; ns'i nDn'?D^,
where thk ^y is perhaps an erroneous specification of an original n'^y (Stade) ;
whether the omission of nsM in Is. was editorial or transcriptional is uncertain.
The actual investment of a city is expressed by Sy mx, the more active
operations, such as assaults on the walls, carried on during the investment in
order to reduce the city, or as the immediate prelude to its capture (^^^), by
Sy □n'?n (Dt 20^^, 2 K 12^*, Jos 10*^), or a urhn (i K 20^, Jg 9^^ 2 S
J 22a. 27. 2»^ Is 20^) or simply Dn'?n (2 S ii^*'^). The purpose of a hostile
approach to a city may, of course, be described either as "to besiege it," or
" to attack it " {rs-hrf onSn*?, Dt 20^*> and here, with the noun instead of the
infin. .T'?y hdh'td'?). onSn does not mean "to continue the fight" (Box), or
"to be successful in fighting" — "to prevail," not even in Nu 22" cited for
this sense by BDB ; success is there implied by the following verb vnsnai.
2-16. Isaiah's interview with Ahaz. "Immanuel.
— At a time when news has reached Jerusalem of the union
of the Syrian with the Ephraimite army at two or three days'
distance from Jerusalem, and the court and people are in
great alarm, Isaiah is commanded by Yahweh to take with him
his son Shear-jashub, whose name signified " A Remnant shall
return," and to meet Ahaz outside the city in the " Fuller's Field
Road " ; he is to exhort the king to keep calm, and to assure him
VII. i-i6 115
that Syria and Ephraim possess no power to do Judah serious
mischief, or to carry out their plan of taking Jerusalem and
overthrowing the Davidic dynasty in favour of an outsider
(probably a Syrian). Lack of trust in Yahweh can alone, but
would surely, lead to Judah's undoing. In a further appeal,
Ahaz is offered any sign (of Yahweh's sufficiency) that he likes
to choose, but he declines the offer. Thereupon Isaiah
announces that Yahweh nevertheless will (hereafter) give a sign
of His own choosing : the nature and purpose of this sign has
been much discussed, and no general agreement has been
reached (see below); but Isaiah goes on to predict (v.^^) that
within two or three years Ephraim and Syria will be a land of
ruins. In w.^^**, which probably do not belong to the original
account of the interview, the desolation of Judah also is
predicted.
In this passage much is obscure ; two things are clear :
Isaiah's contemptuous disbelief in the power of the allied armies
of Syria and Israel, and his profound belief in Yahweh : in both
respects he differs from king and people, who fear the foe and
have no sustaining confidence in Yahweh.
Isaiah's attitude to Assyria is not definitely stated in w.^'^^ ;
and it must be a matter of inference only whether Ahaz had
already paid tribute to Assyria, or was at the time contemplating
doing so. Isaiah may have judged the allied armies as he did,
because he was convinced that an immediate advance of Assyria
to the West would force them to turn back before they could
inflict serious injury on Judah ; but even if so, this was but the
form which his belief in Yahweh took, for with him Yahweh
directed the movements of Assyria.
The date of this interview is the early part of 734. It fell
some few years later than Isaiah's call (ch. 6) : see on v.^.
2. News comes to the court in Jerusalem that the plans of
Syria and Ephraim (v.^) for attacking Jerusalem and over-
throwing the Davidic dynasty (w.*- ^) are now taking practical
and menacing effect The entire might of Syria has settled for
the moment in the country of its allies, the Ephraimites; the
Syrian army has covered more than half the distance between
Damascus and Jerusalem, and is within two or three days' march
of its goal. King and people quail at the news, like trees bending
before the wind (cp. Mt 11^). — The house of David\ so w.^^ ^'^.
Il6 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
The substitution of an alien for the reigning king (v.^) would
involve loss of place and power for the entire house or entourage
(cp. e.g. 2 S 9) of the king. They therefore, and not Ahaz
alone, are described as recipients of the news, and active •
promoters of the policy directed against Syria and Ephraim
(v.i^) ; but it is unnecessary to conclude that on account of the
youth of the king, who may have been barely twenty-one (2 K
16^; but see 2 Ch 28^, Kit.), other members of the royal house
took at this time a more than ordinary part in government. —
Syria hath settled down upon Ephraini\ the phrase to settle upon
(i>y ni3) is used (11^) of the spirit taking possession of men, of
the ark grounding on Mt. Ararat (Gn 8*), of carrion birds
lighting on dead bodies (2 S 21^^); construed with 1 the verb is
also used of insects, such as locusts (Ex 10^*), settling on a
tract of country (v.^^). None of these uses quite corresponds
to what the context here seems to require, the friendly and
temporary halt of an army in the country of allies ; the nearest
parallel for the temporary halt is the absolute use of the vb. in
Nu 10^^. It is doubtful whether the verb was so associated with
swarms of insects as to suggest by itself that the army of Syria
was large (Di.). The unjustifiable rendering is confederate with
(EV), or conjectural emendations to obtain such a sense, increase,
if they do not create, difficulty ; the hostile alliance in itself was
no new thing needing to be announced : it already existed before
Ahaz became king, 2 K \<^'^.
3-9. Yahweh commands Isaiah to interview Ahaz outside
the city, and to assure him that he has no cause for fear; for
the plans of the allied powers will be frustrated. The carrying
out of the command is not directly recorded; it is merely
implied by the fact that in vv.^^^- the actual interview is in
progress; so the fulfilment of Jer 19^'* is implied in 19^* but not
directly recorded.
3. Shear-jashub] unless with Che. {Crit. Bib.) we substitute
for 2\^^ "ISC' of 5^ niK'^ "itJ'X, a name of purely sinister meaning —
"Asshur shall return," the name of the son whom Isaiah is
bidden to take with him, is at once a warning and a promise : a
large part of the whole will perish and not return, but the
remnant will return and be saved. Isaiah may at different
times have explained the whole and the remnant differently ;
but on this occasion he would explain it as meaning that the
VII. 2, 3
117
larger part of " the whole house of Israel," the northern kingdom,
will certainly perish; but the remnant, Judah, may return to
Yahweh and be saved (cp. vv.^*-^^). In any case we must
assume that Isaiah takes his son, whose name was a sign (8^^),
because he knows that King Ahaz when he sees the boy will
recall his name and its significance. Before this time Isaiah had
probably drawn public attention to his elder son's name, as later
he did to the name of the younger (S^^-), and an account of this
may have stood originally in the memoirs. There is no
suggestion that Isaiah was to carry Shear-jashub : the child
therefore must have been old enough to go for a walk. The
name with its prophetic significance must have been given after
the call (ch. 6) : therefore this incident falls at least two or three,
perhaps several years, after that event. — Go out . . . to the end of
the channel of the upper pool, to the Fuller's Field Road^ we may
assume that Ahaz was engaged at the time in inspecting the
water supply of the city against the siege which might now be
expected within a day or two. The city of Jerusalem contains
no springs, but is and must always have been entirely dependent
for its water supply * on cisterns filled by (i) the rain of winter,
or (2) by aqueducts from springs, or reservoirs, outside the city.
The only perennial supply of water in the immediate vicinity of
Jerusalem is the Virgin's Spring, "'Ain Sitti Maryam": this was
connected, perhaps later than the time of Ahaz (cp. 2 K 2o2<^,
2 Ch 32^®), by an underground passage, 586 yards long, with
the pool of Siloam within the city, and so made available
for the inhabitants in time of siege. An external conduit had
previously connected these points (Benzinger, Kon. 187), but
this was liable to be cut by an enemy. The place of the
interview, in spite of the full definition, cannot be identified ;
perhaps it lay to the north of the city, for the Assyrian army is
said to have encamped there (362), and the north is the natural
side from which to attack Jerusalem, as the Romans also later
perceived. Others f put it to the S.E., below the city "at the
mouth of the Tyropoeon valley." The Fuller's Field may
indeed have lain there, *' where alone water abounded " ; but was
the entire course of the Fuller's Field Road below the city ? The
* G. A. Smith, y<?/-«ja/tfw, i. 15 and ch. v.
t Sta. Gesch. i. 592 f. (with plan); G. A. Smith, ferusatem, i. 105, Ii4ff,,
ii. 127.
ii8
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
verb Go out does not suggest descent into the valley. — 4. Isaiah
is to say to Ahaz : See to it that you keep quiet, free from agitation,
not like trees trembling in the wind (v.^) ; have no fear of Syria
and Ephraim, who, worn out with their previous internecine
warfare, have little power of mischief left, but are like the stumps
of fire brands now smouldering before they finally grow cold and
harmless. Smoke, not fire, is all that the latest news means.
Isaiah condemns two things in Ahaz : his fear, for it is needless ;
his faith in material resources — here typified by a secure water
supply in time of siege ; the only faith that will secure the real
solidity of the state is faith in Yahweh (v.®). He demands of
Ahaz, directly by his words, confidence and, by the presence of
his son Shear-jashub, " return " to Yahweh. The point of view
is essentially the same years later, and expressed in part by the
same terms: "in returning {shubah) and resting shall ye find
support, in keeping quiet (topJJ'n, as here and 32^7, cp. 18*) and
confidence shall your strength lie " (30^^), not in cavalry or the
power of Egypt (30^^). — At the heat of the anger of Reson and
Syria, and Remalial^s son\ an explanation, supplied perhaps by
the editor, of the figure of the smouldering stumps in the
previous clause. The combination of the terms Re^on, Syna,
RemaliaJCs son is curious. RemaliaKs son appears to be a
contemptuous mode of reference to Pekah : cp. i S 20^^ and,
below, " the son of Tabeel." — 5, 6. The plan of the allies, which
has alarmed Ahaz, but appears to Isaiah certain of frustration
(v.^, is to take Jerusalem by storm and then dethrone Ahaz,
overturn the house of David, and set up as king of Judah a
creature of their own, called contemptuously not by his own
name, but merely the son of Tabeel, If ffi preserve the correct
pronunciation, Ta^o}\, the name (cp. Ezr 4^) of the father is
Aramaic and the man, presumably, an Aramaean. If this be
so, then, whether Winckler be right or not in identifying the son
of Tabeel with Reson,* we have here an indication that Syria is
the dominant power in the alliance. — Let us go up into Judah and
cause her to be in dread] or, more probably, reading n3p''V3 for
njVp^, and let us bring her into straits, cp. 29'^. — And let us break
into her\ here, if not in the previous clause, the suffix refers to
Jerusalem rather than to Judah as a whole ; it can scarcely be
"let us force a passage into her territory" (Box), for the first
* ATUntersuchungen, 74 ; KAT^ 135.
VII. 4-8 119
clause of the v. already expresses invasion of the territory. For
the vb. (vpn, Kal, Niph.) of breaking into cities, see 2 Ch 32^,
2 K 25^ Ezk 30I6, Jer 392. Even in 2 Ch 211^ r\)]}p2'^'\ is prob-
ably a breviloquence for "and broke into the cities thereof."
— I^or us] let us break in it so as to bring it unfo us (l3^^fc<, cp.
2 Ch 32^), i.e. into our hands.
7-9. Over against the fears of Ahaz and the plans of Syria
and Ephraim is now set the sentence of Yahweh. The evil plan
(nyi, V.*) will not be carried out. Reson is head of Damascus,
Damascus capital of Syria, Pel^ah head of Samaria, and Samaria
capital of Ephraim, and they will never be anything more ; not to
them belongs, or ever will belong, the headship of Judah. So
far as they are concerned, Judah is safe. But its ultimate safety
and continuance rest on its relation to Yahweh. It is not really
threatened by the evil plans of its foes ; it is not rendered safe
because their plans are foiled. Safety will be secured by a
practical and personal belief in and understanding of Yahweh,
which will lead to a quiet confidence in His sufficiency (v.* 30^^^-),
and to righteousness of life (cp. Gn 15^); but if yg believe not^ye
shall not be established', an early and correct interpretation of
this great saying is found in 2 Ch 20^0 ; the positive alternative,
here left to be understood, is expressed by Isaiah in 28^^. Note
the paronomasia — Hm lo tcHaminu ki lo tVdmenUy cp. i^s ^7 ^^.c^
This passage or Gn 15® is the earliest extant containing the
expression to believe.
8b. Sixty-five years hence Ephraim shall be broken in pieces^
that it be no more a people. — Eich. and Ges. pointed out, and
later scholars have very generally recognised, that these words are
an annotation by a later writer. Like the Aramaic gloss in
Jer lo^^ they spoil a sentence by intruding into the middle of it.
Moreover, the note in its present position anticipates the allusion
to Ephraim (v.^) which it attempts to explain. The origin and
nature of the clause are sufficiently indicated by its position ;
but it may be observed further that it could afford Ahaz little
assurance that the present peril was unreal, to know that long
after he was dead Ephraim would be destroyed. The precise dat-
ing of a prediction, too, would be without analogy in Hebrew pro-
phecy, round numbers occur, 16I* 20^ 21^^, Jer 2^^^'. The writer
of the note refers to some event in the history of Ephraim that
occurred 65 years after 735 B.C., i.e. in 670-669 B.c. The Book
120
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
of Kings appears to know nothing of any kingdom of Ephraim
after its conquest by Sargon in 722 B.C. (2 K 17). On the other
hand, Ezr 42- 10 speaks of settlements of Babylonian peoples in
Samaria in the time of Esar-haddon (681-668) and Osnappar =
Asshurbanipal (668-626). Since there is no obvious reason why
a late annotator should invent the number 65, it is probable that
the gloss is the note of a seventh century scribe, and records
some deportation of the inhabitants of Ephraim by Esar-haddon
or Asshurbanipal. Cp. Winckler, ATUntersuchungen^ 97 ff-
2. nnj] Fem., in reference to the whole people of Aram : cp. 21*42",
Ex 12^, and see G-K., 122A, i. Houb. emended to niSj, Lag. to nnK3, a
verbal form assumed from n«, brother. If emendation were necessary, njn (cp.
Sebastian Munster) would be easy, but the prep, ^y would give it an inap-
propriate hostile force, ffir renders <ri;j'e0c6»'97(rei'(='nan, Gn 14'; nN(Niph.),
2 K 128), ^ innnN, ,S «^oZl»1.— 4. T^ Kal impf. in a, G-K. 67/.— »]t< nna
'ui J'J«n] loosely attached to the foregoing. For this clause and the whole of
the next v. (J5 has firay 7ip bprfy rod dvfiov fiov y^vrjrai, irdXiv Idao/xai' Kal 6
vlbs Tov 'ApA/4 Kal 6 vlbs tov 'FofieXlov 8ti i^ovXe^aavro ^ovXtjt Trovijp&v. This
is obviously not the original sense ; nor is an original text to be obtained by
mere retranslation.' But possibly the difference between |^ and (& is in part
due to a short original text having been expanded by glosses which did not
find quite the same place in ^ and the original of fflr. Perhaps the original
of vv.*'' (from nnn) and "^ consisted simply of nin yh]} ijj;' '3-|j;' j all beyond
this adds words, but nothing to the sense. — 5. *3 |y'] rather characteristic of
Isaiah: 3^* n. — 6. n-^n":! n'?j;j] 3 nSy implies actual entrance m/^ the city or
district concerned, not mere approach to it : see 2 S 2^, Jg i^, i Ch 14",
2 Ch 21", and even in Jer 48^^, where the object is the personified people (cp.
Jos 9^). — njji'pj] Hiph. (here only) of X^^i in the sense found in v.^*, Ex i^^^
Nu 22*. Read rather (with Ges. Tkes. al.) n^p;'4} — a better transition to
ny]j''p2y ffi (Tvv\a'K'fiaavTe$ airroh, doubtful. — ^N3t5] if Aramaic, cp. pmno,
Ta^epeixd. (i K 15^*), the name of Ben-hadad's father. If the name was
Hebrew, it was pronounced '?><3b, and would then have been transliterated by
aScTuPi^X: cp. .T3-IB, lu^Las. MT ('?><3b) in the first syllable preserves the
tradition that the name is Aramaic ; in the second the pathah is hardly pausal for
sere, but rather a punctuator's witticism, who would have the name mean '* No-
good." — 7. i*n.T ':in] CEr Kvpios ffa^aibd. — 9. ••3] surely, as in nny '3, etc. : BDB
472<J ; G-K. i59S^^^But '3 may be an error for '3 ; on this and on ffi (iL^)
avuiJTe intellegatis — \i2r^ for i3D(K)n ; see Nestle in ZATW, 1905, pp. 215 ff. —
8. nn'] for the less usual sense of >/nnn, to be shattered, cp. the use of the Hiph.
in 9^ of D'nn (pi.) in i S 2*, and of nnnn (? Piel) in Jer 51^^. The use of the
Kal in 30^^, often cited as parallel, is ambiguous. For the more usual sense
to be dismay ed^ cp. 8'n.
10-13. Isaiah offers, and Ahaz provokes his indigna-
tion by refusing, a sign. — 10 f. Isaiah offers then and there
VII. 2-9, IO-I3 121
to Ahaz any sign he may like to demand, in Heaven above or
Sheol below, in proof that Yahweh determines what shall come
to pass, and that it is His present will that Jerusalem shall suffer
nothing from the advancing armies of Ephraim and Syria, but
that these armies will within a short time retire and leave Judah
unmolested.
Obviously we have no full account of the interview. We
must, therefore, infer what definite statements by Isaiah preceded
this offer of a sign, and what that sign was to prove.
And Yahweh again spake\ Yahweh spoke through His
prophet, Isaiah : cp. 3^^ In the original form of the narrative,
if autobiographical, the clause must have run, " I spake again." —
W, A sign\ a sign (niK) is an event which is the pledge for the
fulfilment of a prophecy, the genuineness of a promise, the
reality of an experience, and the like. It may be given as a token
that something really will happen in the future, or as a reminder
that something predicted previously has now actually happened.
The sign may be a quite ordinary event, especially if it is itself
a matter of prophecy (as in v.^*), or it may be of an extraordinary,
miraculous nature, in which case it is also a " wonder '' (naiD).
An example of the first kind is afforded by i S 2^'^'^^ where the
removal of the priesthood from the house of Eli is predicted ; and
the sign that this prediction will come true is that, in the nearer
future, Eli's two sons will die on a single day — a striking, but by
no means a miraculous, occurrence. Again the sign, or reminder
(Ex 3^2), that it really was Yahweh that spoke to and commis-
sioned Moses, will be the fact that in Sinai the Hebrews will
worship God, i.e. the later event confirms the reality of a previous
experience. Jeremiah confirms his prediction of the annihilation
of the Jews in Egypt by the prediction that (in the nearer future)
the king of Egypt will fall into the hand of his enemies (Jer
442^-). For signs which are also wonders, see 38'^' ^2^ Jg 6^'^.
Here Isaiah first offers Ahaz a miraculous sign to take place at
the present moment in proof that things will happen as he has
said. But (v.^^^ Ahaz declines the offer, asserting that he is
unwilling to tempt Yahweh by making Him prove His power
(cp. Ex 17^). Isaiah is not deceived by this show of piety, but
interprets the king's refusal of a sign as an indication of his
unwillingness to accept the guidance of Yahweh, and his
determination to pursue his own policy. With the king and
1
122 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
(v.^^) court in this mood a miraculous sign at the present momen
becomes useless ; on the other hand, Yahweh insists that whether
Ahaz and his court will it or not, a sign they shall have, not now
but after the event, which will recall the correctness of the
prophet's prediction, and refer the relief from the siege not to the
human efforts of Ahaz, but to the will of Yahweh. This sign will
be not of Ahaz', but of Yahweh's choosing, and, its purpose being
different, it will not need to be miraculous like that offered to and
rejected by Ahaz. — Ask a sign from Yahweh . . . deep down in
Sheol or high up above\ Yahweh's power extends to Sheol below,
as well as to the heights above, Am 9^ ; alike in Sheol and in
heaven, He can work wonders. Isaiah's willingness that Ahaz
shall choose the sign, indicates that he had already proved by
experience his power to work wonders, unless we should detect
here the result of an enthusiastic disciple's exaggerated conception
of the prophet's powers (cp. Che. EBi. 3859). There is, of
course, no question of necromancy : the sign is to be a sign from
Yahweh. But to avoid misunderstanding, ST paraphrased — Ask
of thee a sign from the Lord : ask that a miracle may be done on
earth, or that a sign may appear in heaven. But to interpret J^
Ask it either in the depth (MT, EV), instead of deep down in Sh^ol^
though idiomatically possible, is certainly wrong: it involves a
weak repetition of ask and a mutilation of the parallelism in the
last clauses of the v. — Yahweh thy God] Isaiah addresses Ahaz,
and Ahaz replies (v.^^), as a servant of Yahweh : after Ahaz'
answer, interpreted by Isaiah as contumacious, Isaiah significantly
varies the phrase and says " my God " (v.^^). — 12. See n. on sign,
v.^\ — 13. And he said] sc. Isaiah ; originally perhaps and I said'.
see v.^® n. — Let Ahaz and his courtiers know that it is not only
men, prophets like and including himself, whose patience they
exhaust : they weary (cp. i^*) out Yahweh Himself by their per-
sistent disregard of what He really requires.
14-16. Immanuel. — Christian interpreters, dominated by
the use in Mt 1^3 of v.^*, for many centuries saw in these verses
an assertion that our Lord was ** conceived by the Holy Ghost,
born of the Virgin Mary." Jewish interpreters have throughout
insisted that what Isaiah here predicts is a birth due to ordinary
human intercourse, and about to take place in the normal manner.
Modern interpreters, whether Jews or Christians, are much
divided, and in particular on these points : (i) Who is the mother
VII. i3-i6 123
and who the son referred to in v.^* ? (2) What is the sign given
by Yahweh Himself, and what does it signify ? Is it miraculous ?
Wherein precisely does it consist ? Does it signify (a) that Judah
will be delivered, or (d) that it will be destroyed, or (c) that it will
be first delivered and then destroyed? The ambiguities and
awkwardnesses of the passage are so numerous as to give little
hope of reaching an interpretation that will command general
assent; and under these circumstances even the dogmatic or
traditional Christian interpretation will doubtless continue to
find defenders, while others may infer that the text has been
deeply corrupted and must be reconstructed by bold and exten-
sive conjectures : see Che., most recently in the Two Religions^
309 ff. It will be convenient to summarise here before passing
on to the discussion of details, pp. 123-133, and the history of
the interpretation, pp. 133-136, what appears on the whole to be
the most probable interpretation of two disputed particulars, and
the general meaning of the verses on the supposition that |^ is
not hopelessly corrupt : (i) the predicted birth will be in no way
abnormal ; but a child (or children) conceived and bom in the
ordinary course of nature will be named Immanuel, God with
us ; (2) v.^*^ predicts plenty and not starvation. The general
meaning of the whole is this : Judah will not suffer harm from
Ephraim and Syria (cp. v.*) ; on the other hand (v.^^), Ephraim
and Syria will within two or three years be in ruins. If this
interpretation is correct, Isaiah concludes his interview with Ahaz
by reiterating what he was sent to tell him (v.*). Such a con-
clusion would be altogether natural, and the interpretation just
suggested might be regarded as certain, but for v. ^3, in which
Isaiah expresses his indignation at the unbelief of Ahaz and the
court. Some interpreters out of regard to v.^^ interpret vv.^*-^^ as
wholly or in part a threat : v.^* can be ingeniously interpreted in this
sense; v.^* is commonly, but mistakenly, construed as a threat by
modern scholars : v.^^ can be turned into a threat only by omitting
the last part of it, or by an illegitimate view of the construction.
14, Ahaz refused (v.*^) to accept Yahweh's offer (v.^*) that he
might choose any sign he liked to be wrought at once ; there-
fore Yahweh Himself chooses the sign, and will see that it takes
place not at once, indeed, but in the near future. It has been
repeatedly argued by Christian scholars from Justin Martyr down-
wards that the sign which Yahweh is Himself to choose and give
I
124 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
must be a miracle : " Signum autem a Deo, nisi novitas aliqua
monstruosa fuisset, signum non videretur " (Tert. Adv. Jud. 9) ;
but the argument rests on a misconception of what the term niK,
sigriy necessarily implies, and of the purpose of the particular sign
here contemplated \ Yahweh had been willing to do a miracle to
convince Ahaz, but a very ordinary event may serve to remind
him, when the time comes, that what His prophet predicted
has come true. The miracle here, so far as there is a miracle,
may lie solely in the prediction. Neither the term niN, sign (see
v.^^ n.), nor the circumstances compel us to seek a miracle in the
event predicted. This being so, we shall be safest in understanding
the statement of vv.^*"^® as follows : within a few months at most,
and perhaps immediately, a child (or children) now in the womb
will be receiving the name Immanuel, God is with us : for the
present popular tension will be relieved; and mothers will
express the general feeling of relief at the favourable turn in
public events (ct. i S 4^1) when they name their children. Such
children with their names will be a reminder that the terror
of the king and the people (v. 2) was groundless, and the con-
fidence of the prophet justified. Moreover, the withdrawal of
Syria and Ephraim will not be merely temporary ; the child(ren)
to be born will neither starve as they grow up in a beleaguered
city, nor in a devastated country side : they will feed on curds
and honey (v.^^) — the highly prized products of the land of
promise. For within two or three years, Ephraim and Syria
will have perished, their land will be a land of ruins (v.^^). The
sign lies not, as the traditional Christian and some recent
theories assume, in the circumstances of the birth, but in the
chain of events now predicted, and their association with the
birth and naming of a child, and in the time and order of their
occurrence being determined by reference to the child's growth,
as in 8^^- This interpretation is by no means beyond criticism
or without difficulty; but it is at least less improbable than
others that have been offered. — Therefore] p7 often introduces a
threat, as in i^* 518- 24 . buj- \i (joes not always do so (cp. Jer i6i^),
and it is therefore precarious to argue, as Di. does, that the sign
so introduced must be a threat of punishment. Again, it would
not have been surprising to find that Isaiah, driven by the king's
contumacy, substituted a threat (cp. i^^^-) for the promise which
he came to bring : still the v. does not as a matter of fact
VII. 14 125
refer to any such change ; the v. does draw attention to a
change ; but, as the emphasis shows, it is a change of the person
who chooses the sign, and indeed of the sign, but not of the
future to which that sign is to refer : the Lord (v.l. Yahweh)
himself will now choose and give a sign. V.^^ clearly con-
templates the same view of the future as vv.***, and these con-
template nothing that would justify fear in Judah. Certainly the
presence of God of which the sign speaks might mean a great
deal more than relief from the threatened invasion if Ahaz and
his court continued contumacious, but it is not clear that it was
Isaiah's purpose at this interview to dwell on this side of the
matter. — Behold, a damsel is with child, and shall bring forth a
son, and call his name Immanuet\ the Hebrew article is ambiguous
(see phil. n.) : nDfjyn may mean either the damsel^ or a damsel, or
even damsels. That it has here one of the two latter meanings
is the view advocated above ; among earlier advocates of this
view are J. D. Mich., Eich., Kuen., Du., W. R. Smith, Budde,
Sta., Marti. It falls to the ground if, as is possible, though not
necessary, in J^, and impossible in fflr, Immanuel is addressed
in the vocative in 8^. If a particular definite individual is
intended, it is curious that she is not more precisely
specified. The damsel would be a strange mode of reference
either to the wife (or a concubine) of the king,* to the prophet's
own wife,t or to some pregnant woman present at the interview
and singled out by the prophet for his purpose ; % but for this
much might be said for identifying the damsel with Isaiah's wife,
who is, however, called " the prophetess " in 8^ : knowing that she
was near child-birth, Isaiah would be thinking of a sign that he
could be certain of bringing about, except so far as the sex of
the child is concerned, and that is immaterial to the sign. The
sign, moreover, would be of the same kind as the signs that he
(S^^* : cp. 8^^ 7^) and other prophets (Hos i) employed. The
mode of reference would be better satisfied by a theory of
Rosenmiiller's which has been recently revived in a modified form
by Gressmann and others. Gressmann § postulates the existence
•Early Jewish Exegesis (see Jer.), Ki., and, recently, C. M. Brown in_
fBLit.y 1890, 118-127; Maspero, Histoire Ancienne, iii. 1^4,
t Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Grotius, Ges. , Hitz. % Isenbiehl.
%Eschatotogie, pp. 276 f., cp. 2706"., 284; cp. Burney (independently) in
IThSx. 580-584 ; Jeremias, ATAO 556 f. ; Box.
126 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
in Judah before and at the time of Isaiah of a well-known
prophecy that a wonderful child was to be born and was to be
called Immanuel, was to eat milk and honey in his infancy, and
before he was five years old deliver his people. All that Isaiah
does, according to this theory, is to assert that this (hypo-
thetically) well-known prophecy is on the point of fulfilment,
the damsel familiar to every one in the current prophecy is about
to bear her child, the divine mother is to give birth to a divine
child. Difficulties arise, as Gressmann admits, if we begin to
press the words of the text : e^g. the words taken strictly mean
that the delivery of Judah is to be delayed for the child to
accomplish, i.e. five years. Gressmann accounts for these diffi-
culties, which he does not eliminate, by the assumption that in
reproducing traditional material Isaiah retains irrelevances. This
theory and all theories that detect the influence of mythology
here start from an alleged but unreal necessity for satisfying two
conditions of which the text says nothing : it is assumed that
there must be something miraculous here, though the text speaks
merely of a sign^ and that the child must be a deliverer, whereas
the text neither says nor implies anything of the kind; and,
indeed, the passive tense in v.^^ is altogether unfavourable to the
assumption that Judah will be delivered by Immanuel. There
is just as Httle suggestion here that Immanuel will deliver Judah
as there is in Hos i that Hosea's son Jezreel would exact
vengeance on the house of Jehu. — Damsel^ ffi TrapOevoSj EV
virgin ; but this rendering is unquestionably, and is now gener-
ally admitted to be, unjustifiable. The word noijy is fern, of
t^hv, youth^ which is used in i S 17^* 20^2 and corresponds to
^Li, a derivative not from the root D^jy, to conceal^ which seems
to be unknown in Arabic, but from oi^V, *ii, to be lustful ; r\xh^
means a girl, or young woman, above the age of childhood and
sexual immaturity (in this being more specific than the
synonymous myj), a person of the age at which sexual emotion
awakens and becomes potent ; it asserts neither virginity nor the
lack of it ; it is naturally in actual usage often applied to women
who were as a matter of fact certainly (Gn 24^^, Ex 2^), or
probably (Ca i^ 6^, Ps 6826), virgins. On the other hand, it is
also used in Pr 30^9 where the marvels of procreation and
embryology (cp. Ps 139^^"^^ Ec 11^) seem to be alluded to, and
VII. 14 127
the corresponding term (or terms) is used in Aramaic of persons
certainly not virgin, as, e.g.^ in C Jg 19^ of a concubine who
had proved unfaithful ; in Palmyrene it is used of harlots, and
in a bi-lingual inscription NHDIPV apparently corresponds to
[€]Tat/)oj[v] : see Cooke, North- Semitic Inscriptions^ pp. 330, 335,
340. The Hebrew word for virgin is rh\T\2 (Ex 22^^, Lv 21^^),
and corresponding to the difference between rhwsi and i\rhv are
the different abstract nouns D^Dipy, youth and youthful vigour^
naturally including sexual maturity (Job 20^1 332*, Ps 89*^, Is
54*), and D^^na, virginity (Jg 1 1^^^, Dt 22^^). Where stress needed
to be laid on a woman's virginity even more unambiguous
phraseology was employed ; see Nu 31 3^. All this serves to
show how the prophet would have expressed himself if he had
had to announce the miracle of birth without loss of virginity.
Why the term rxohv in preference, say, to HK'X or my: was chosen,
no theory yet propounded explains, but least of all the theories
that require the passage to express the fact that the woman con-
ceives and bears without ceasing to be a virgin. — Is with childy
and shall bear"] this rendering is justified by Gn 16^^ where the
same phraseology is used of a woman who has already conceived
(cp. vv.*^-) and is near giving birth. If this is intended here, the
promise is that within a few weeks, or days even, God's act of
deliverance will be in every one's mouth. The alternative
rendering, shall be with child and bring forth, would postpone the
deliverance for the best part of a year, whereas the narrative
seems to suggest that Isaiah expected it at once. — And shall call
his name^ MT rightly punctuates nxnp — an unusual form of the
3rd pers. fem. : the child is to receive his name in the ordinary
way, viz. from his mother : see Hastings, DB iii. 480^ ; prophets
who wished to use their children's names as signs naturally
availed themselves of the less usual naming by the father ; see
8^, Hos I. 1^ can indeed, and would most obviously, be pointed
nxij?, thou shall call\ so ffi^^ Aq., Symm., Theod., cp. H
vocabitis ; ST is ambiguous, but SH render by the passive ; cp. the
3rd pi. of ^ and of Mt i^^. Thou shall call would, of course,
imply that the child was to be a son of Ahaz. — Immanuet\ this
name, God is with us, no more implies that the child will be
God, as Christian exegetical tradition kept affirming, or that he
will in any other way be remarkable, than do other names.
128 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
which predicate something of God or Yahweh, assert anything in
reference to those who bore them. The name in 9^ is different
in character. The name Immanuel asserts that God will be
present with the Jews, that they will experience success, deliver-
ance, freedom from danger and anxiety ; the meaning and result
of God's presence can be gathered from such sayings as " I fear
no evil, because thou art with me," Ps 23** ; "I will be with thee,
and bless thee," Gn 26^; "Yahweh of Hosts is with us" — the
refrain in the confident lines of Ps 46 ; cp. also Jg 6^2f. 16 ^nd
Am 5I*, where the synonymous prep, (nx) is used, " Seek ye good
. . . that ye may live, and that Yahweh God of Hosts may
be with you, as ye say." Porter in JBLit.^ 1895, pp. 19-35,
has argued that such a prediction of the beneficent presence
of God with Judah, is inconsistent with the standpoint of the
pre-exilic prophets, including Isaiah. He suggests, therefore,
that " the name Immanuel expresses not the prophet's faith, but
the false faith, the ungrounded confidence, of the king and the
people. It is a name which a Jewish woman, soon to give
birth, might naturally give to her son, but which the experiences
of such a son, even in his earliest infancy, would contradict.
The sign consists, then, not in the name, nor in the lot, of the
boy, but in the relation of the two, in the contradiction of the
name by the lot." But this is really difficult and unsatisfactory ;
it is also inconsistent with the rest of the narrative, according to
which Isaiah did expect immediate relief for Judah, and so far
at least such a beneficent presence of God as to justify the name.
If Porter's objection to the common interpretation of the name
holds good, the genuineness of the whole passage would have to
be questioned, or with Che. {The Two Religions^ p. 316) we
should have to suppose that a name implying a threat has been
altered so as to convey a consolatory sense by an editor who
modified this ancient prophecy in the interests of a Messianic
interpretation. — 15, 16. After the name, the reason might be
expected, as, e.g.^ in Gn 16^^ "Thou shalt call his name Ishmael
(God hears), because God hath heard " ; but these verses at best
imply a reason. V.^*, indeed, opens with ^3, because^ but it refers
to what is to happen some years after the birth of the child, not
to anything which happening at the birth might account for the
name ; for the explanation of the name we must turn back to
what precedes v.^* and infer that the presence of God with Judah
VII. 15, i6 129
at the time when the child is born will be manifested in the
withdrawal just at that time of the Syro-Ephraimitish army. A
considerable degree of awkwardness in the composition at this
point is not to be overlooked ; it may, like other features in the
narrative, be due to abbreviation and alteration of the original
memoirs. This awkwardness is not eliminated, nor even
diminished, by omitting either v.^^,* or v.^*.t On the other
hand, the omission of both verses would allow the narrative to
conclude appropriately and clearly ; yet it would be difficult to
give any reason for the subsequent addition of the two verses. —
Curds and honey shall he eai\ " Victus ei affluet " is Grotius*
terse and pertinent comment: he rightly sees in these words a
promise ; % for milk and honey were highly esteemed.§ Neverthe-
less, since J. D. Mich, most modern interpreters, including Koppe,
Ges., Ew., Del., Di., Che., Du., Marti, Skinner, Peake treat the
V. as a threat ; see below. Curds (riNOn) are milk (37n) that has
thickened : in several passages of the OT, including the present,
it seems to answer to leben^ or sour milk, which is used, not by
any means alone by nomads, in Syria to-day : it is a valued and
refreshing article of diet : see, e.g.^ EBi. 3089. This form of milk
was offered by Abraham to the three men who came to him in
the heat of the day (Gn 18^), by Jael to the weary Sisera (Jg 5^5),
to David and his thirsty company (2 S ly^^-^^). The value set
on it is also attested by the part it plays in descriptions of
abundance, and that not only in the OT (Job 20^^ 29^); an
Assyrian prayer has been cited {EBi. 2104), which in invoking a
blessing on a king begs that God may cause to flow into his
channels " honey and curds " {di^pa himeta). Honey and
curds, moreover, play an important part in Babylonian cultus ;
see KAT^ 526. Since nxon is a valued form of milk, it is
extremely difficult to believe that, though " milk and honey shall
he eat " would have been a promise, " curds and honey shall he
eat " was a threat : we may rather with safety cite as further
illustrations of the promise here made, the fact that " milk and
honey " are the two things singled out to indicate the abundance
•Hitz., Du., Che., Marti, Peake.
t Budde, cited and supported by Kuen. Onderzoek, ii. 43 f.
itCp. Rashi, Lowth, and recently F. Wilke, Jesaja u. Assur, 1905, pp.
37-39.
§See at length Bochart, Hierozoicon, iv. 12.
VOL. I. — 9
I30 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
of the land of promise ; the land in which the Hebrews were to
exchange their nomadic for a settled life was in the oft-recurring
phrase " a land flowing with milk and honey " ; in a longer
description of the land of promise both forms of milk are
mentioned — "curds of kine and new milk of sheep," Dt 32i3^-,
cp. Gn iS^: and much later Ben Sirach defines the staple of
food as consisting of "flour of wheat, and honey, and milk, the
blood of the grape, and oil" (Sir 39^^). It should be clear
then what " curds and honey " meant to Hebrews of the time of
Isaiah, whether we feel free or not to accept an attractive theory
that has recently been advanced, according to which the phrase
"curds (milk) and honey," describing in the first instance the
food of the gods, had its brigin in mythology and, in particular
perhaps in Iranian mythology, which knew of heavenly honey
and holy cows ; whence the phrase descended through Babylonia
to the Hebrews and by another line to the Greeks, who described
the food of the infant Zeus on Crete as curds and honey.* A
phrase with such associations cannot either here or in v.22 imply
hardship ; and to make v.^*^ mean he shall eat (nothing but) honey
and curds, because these will be the only products of a land
devastated by war, is much as if we were to say in English — it
will be all butter and honey then, so reduced will they have
become ! or as if we were to justify calling a painful career " a
path of roses," by remarking that roses have thorns ! And not
only do the associations of the phrase suggest the very reverse of
a threat : so too does the context ; v.^* says God will be with
Judah at the time of the child's birth, and v.^^ that before the
child is two or three years old, Ephraim and Syria, which now
threaten Judah, will be destroyed. V.^^ gives the ground for v.^,
and a promise cannot be the reason for a threat. Nor again is
the V. a veiled promise and the meaning that Immanuel shall be
brought up on the fare of nomads and Judah in his childhood
return to nomadic life for its moral warfare (cp. Hos 2) : f for
"eating curds and honey " cannot have meant living the nomadic
life to a people who called the land in which they had abandoned
the nomadic life "a land of milk and honey," and centuries
after they had outlived the nomadic stage of their history held
* See H. Usener in Rhein. Museum fur Phil,, 1902, pp. l*n~l9S »
Eichhorn as cited in Gressmann, p. 291,
t Budde.
VII. 15, i6 131
" curds (milk) and honey " in the esteem indicated by the passages
mentioned above, especially Sir 39^^, Dt ^2^^^'. — Af the time
that he kn(nvs\ at about three years of age : see next n. The
alternative rendering, that he may knoWy is grammatically
legiiimate, but this translation stands or falls with the interpreta-
tion rejected at the end of the last n. — To reject the bad and
choose the good] this most probably refers to the power to distinguish
between good and bad, palatable or unpalatable, food ; a child
without this power (Dt i^^) is a child as yet unweaned, or but
lately weaned, i.e. of two or three years of age (cp. 2 Mac 7^7).
The point is illustrated by a modern Syrian popular tale : ** It is said of
Moses that when he was three years of age, Pharaoh set him on his lap ; and
Moses stretched out his hand to Pharaoh's beard, and pulled some hairs from
it. And Pharaoh was angry, and said : This is my enemy : he must be killed.
And Asiah, Pharaoh's wife, said to him : It is the nature of small children :
they have no knowledge ; and I will show thee a thing that will prove it to
thee. And she went and brought two vessels, in one a stone, in the other
fruit, and put them before Moses, that Pharaoh might know the nature of
small children. And Moses chose the vessel in which was the stone, and
Pharaoh ceased from his wrath against Moses, when he saw that he knew not
to distinguish between them" {PEF Qu St., 1909, p. 37).
Some * interpret the phrase " knowledge to reject the evil
and choose the good " of moral perception, and place the age
here implied much later than the 3rd year (e.g. 10 or 20; Di.).
But the analogy of 8* and the proof thereby afforded that Isaiah
a little later certainly expected the desolation of Ephraim and
Syria within a year or two, favour an interpretation of the phrase
that implies a brief period in the life of the child. — 16. Within
two or three years (see last note) from the present time and the
immediately expected birth of Immanuel, Ephraim and Syria will
be depopulated. With this final stage in the future of Ephraim
and Syria, the word of Yahweh (v.^), with which Isaiah was
sent to Ahaz, reaches its natural conclusion. It is improbable
that vv.i^^- predicting the desolation of Judah formed any part
of Isaiah's speech on this occasion. The v. does not, as the
introductory for might suggest, give the reason for the name
Imma7iuel\ the name will be given in consequence of the with-
drawal of Ephraim and Syria from Judah; but this v. looks
forward to a later stage of events : the Assyrians will first by their
advance recall the Syrians and Ephraimites to their own
* Ew., Di.
132 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
territory, and then after defeating them devastate their country.
Isaiah expected the subjection of Ephraim and Syria to take
some little time : and his forecast was substantially justified by
events. We may place the interview with Ahaz early in 734.
Damascus was reduced in 732. The captivity of Galilee
(2 K 1529) may be placed in 734. — The child] The term ("1^3) is
used of any age from infancy (Ex 2^, i S i^^) up to early man-
hood (Gn 34^^, Jar i^- '^). — The land of Ephraim and Syria, 0
whose two kings, Reson and Pekah thou art in dread (|*p, see
BDB), shall be left by (3TVn), and so be empty of, its inhabitants ;
cp. Jer. 429, Zeph. 2*, and naity in 6^2 179. The singular nnnxn,
land, for the two countries of Syria and Ephraim is curious ; if
Isaiah's sign was a threat, and if v.^'^ was the direct continuation
of v.^^, it would be reasonable to suspect that the last clause of
the v. is intrusive and that the original text ran: For before the
child knows, etc., the land (viz. of Judah) shall be abandoned',
^"^ Yahweh shall bring upon thee (viz. Ahaz) and upon thy people,
etc. Cond. has revived the attempt to gain the same sense by
following © but retaining the last clause : the land (viz. of Judah)
for which thou art in dread because of two kings : but see phil. n.
II. rhv(v P'0VT(\ the construction implied by MT n^K^ is, of course, in
itself possible and thoroughly idiomatic — go deep, ask, i.e. ask in the depth,
the first verb having an adverbial force (G-K. II4«): cp. Ps 51*. For
the emphatic form of the imperative thus presupposed, cp. nj;^'??', •"'O/'P*
and cp. G-K. 48/. The construction was so understood by % (and ? C),
but wrongly. 3J in profundum inferni, Aq., Symm., Theod. {eh &8rjv),
and perhaps (& with its brief rendering of the two clauses els ^ddoi ^ eh (jx/zos,
correctly read n^Ntf', to SheoL It is unlikely that MT meant " to Sheol" and
yet pointed npx^, to gain an assonance with rhv^ (Kon. i. p. 262). — 14. 'jhn]
some 40 MSS read nin\ — Kin] G-K. 135a, c. — riNnpi p mS'i 7\-\r\ nrh^n r\v<\
"the part, is used, lastly, of future time, which it represents as already
beginning : hence, if the event designated can only in fact occur after an
interval, it asserts forcibly and suggestively the certainty of its approach."
" The part., after r\v\ does not necessarily refer to the future ... it may
describe an occurrence in the present, Jg 9'"^, I S 14^^" (Driver, § 135 (3) and
Obs. i). In Gn 16^^ the first part, after the Ti'in refers to the present, the
second to the fut. : and so probably here. Similar combinations of the vbs.
r\-yn, nV% Nnp occur in Jg 13'' '. — nD'?i;n] this may, of course, according to the
commonest use of the art. in Hebrew as in other languages, mean '* the (well-
known) young woman " — some one so known already to Isaiah and his
audience that it was unnecessary to define her further. But the art. may also
"indicate a particular unknown person or thing which under the given
circumstances is to be thought of as being concerned " (G-K. 126^ ; Dav.
VII. ii-i6 133
Syntax^ 21 (e) : see, e.g.y Am 3'^ 5*', i K 20^). In Am 3^' the circumstances
are such as may affect many members of the class defined, and 7\'^'\t\ liecomes
equivalent to shepherds. So here the future circumstances may similarly
affect more than one young woman : no"?!;.! may therefore mean *' a young
woman " as yet unknown, but whom future circumstances may define, or since
the circumstances may similarly affect an indefinite number, "young women."
Which of these grammatical possibilities was intended must be determined
(if possible) by the entire context. — nmp if 3rd sing. fem. pf., as in MT
TK-jp, it stands for nK-ijj, a form retaining like n^m the orig. n of the fem. Cp.
the forms nN^iJj, Ps ii8®j nxan, Gn 33"; G-K. 74^. The form can be
pointed riK-jj; ; but had the writer intended to change the subject and to make
the point that Ahaz himself would give the name that was to convict him of
ungrounded lack of faith, he would almost certainly have expressed the subject
Nipn nnNi. — 15. inyn'?] at the time that he knows — h of the point (rather than the
period) of time, as in Gn 3^ Dvn nn*?, 8" 3iy ny*?, 2 S iiS Ps 30', and, with an
infin. as here, np3, my mas'?, Gn 24^, Ps 46^. The use of "?, meaning up to, till
(for which ny is normally used), is rarer ; but see Ex 34^^, Am 4' (not infinitives) ;
V, with the infin. meaning in order that^ is, of course, common (G-K. 114/, g\
BDB 5I7«). (ffi renders "Kplv ^ yvGivax influenced by v.^' rather than by a
variant tnyi '3sS. — dind] inf. abs., direct obj. of inyn : G-K. w^fd. — noiNn
n's^D 'Jir 'j£3D fp nnK ik'k] Cond. , after Ephraem Syrus ^-»-j5j JJCTI p*)]
m . \v ^oAj |, renders la terre pour laquelle tu redoutes les deux rois ; but
this would require in |^ no less than in Syriac the addition of .T^y. Moreover,
the indef. D'a^D which Cond. substitutes for .tdSd would be unsuitable, and
D'D^Dn which his translation {,les, . . . rois) really implies is less like |^.
History of the interpretation of w.'^^'^* (^^). — The earliest interpretation is
to be found in Mic 5^, if, as is commonly assumed, the words m^' nihv ny ny
refer to Is 7" (but see Exp., April 191 1, p. 209 f.). The writer, whatever his
date, then identifies the child to be born with the coming deliverer of Israel,
synchronises with his birth the restoration of Israel to Yahweh's favour, and
probably (see v.^) regards the coming deliverer as a scion of the House of
David, though some infer from the last words of v.^ that the child will be of
divine h'neage. The term m"?!' used in Micah is far more colourless than
no^y, and does not even remotely suggest that the mother must necessarily be
young or unmarried, still less that she must be virgin. Indeed, the use of
this colourless word is to be explained by G-K. 144^, so that the sentence
means until his mother, whoever she may be, shall have borne him, i.e. until
he is born.
Apart from Mic 5^, the earliest interpretation of Is y^*"^* is ffi. Here we
note the following as the main points : ( i ) mn is rendered iv yaarpl XiJ/ti/'crat,
i.e. the conception as well as the birth of the child is still future ; (2) if
Ka\4o-eis (BA, cp. Mt l'^) be the true text of © and not Ka\4<T€c (n), or
Ka\4a€T€ (Q*), or Kokiaowriv (F, Mt i^^), the child is to receive its name from
Ahaz, and is therefore presumably to be the child of Ahaz ; the variants in (&
may be due to a change of interpretation of this point ; (3) here as in
Gn 24^, f& renders noSyn by ^ trapdevos ; this should imply at least that (K
understood and wished to make clear that ot the time the sign was ^ven the
134 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
future mother was a virgin and that Immanuel would be her first-bom. But
it is very far from certain that the translators held that the mother would still
be virgin when the child was born. On the other hand, their rendering
would be entirely explained and in harmony with the reading KoKiaeis and
the future rendering of n^rt, if (Sc, anticipating the later Jewish interpretation,
saw in the child to be born Hezekiah the first-bom of Ahaz, and conceived
the interview as taking place in immediate prospect of the marriage of Ahaz.
It is then very doubtful whether, and, if KoXiffeis be the true text in
Is 7^* fflr, exceedingly improbable that, (& gave to Is 712-14 ^ny Messianic
significance. It is certainly worthy of note that in 8^ fflr does not, like many
modern interpreters, who thereby support the Messianic interpretation of
7^*, treat ha ijoy as a proper name in the vocative, but (like hn woy »3 in 8^*)
as a sentence. For a fuller discussion of the place of ffir in the history of the
interpretation of Is 7^^-18, see £xp., April 191 1, pp. 3(X)fF.
The first clear and unmistakable Messianic interpretation of the passage
is to be found in Mt ii8-28^ Jt is an interesting question whether the
quotation goes back to the Aramaic original of the Gospel, or first appears in
the existing Greek version ; unlike irapd^vos, noSy would not suggest to the
Aramaic writer virginity ; and if the quotation goes back to the Aramaic, it
was introduced without any intention of specifically matching the virginity of
Mary with the prediction : the primary point was the identification of Jesus
and Immanuel (cp. Tertullian, Adv. Marc. iii. 12). But once the Gospel
was current in Greek form. Christian interpreters of Is 7" were compelled to
recognise in it the prediction not only of the incarnation and redeeming work
of Jesus, but also of the virginity of His mother.
Henceforward down to the i6th century, and in the main for yet another
two centuries, Jewish and Christian exegesis remained totally opposed ; Chris-
tians affirmed and Jews denied that Isaiah spoke of the birth of the Messiah
from a virgin mother ; Jews affirmed and Christians denied that Isaiah spoke
of a birth which was to take place in his own age of the son of a human
father and a woman not virgin. The influence of this opposition is seen in
the substitution of the more correct veavii for the irapd^vos of (& in the
versions of Aq., Symm., Theod. (2nd cent. A.D.), for which these translators
were very naturally, though most unjustifiably, upbraided by Christian
scholars ; and, on the other hand, of the translation of no^j; by jA^oAs
in the (probably) Christian version .S ; IL, of course, and H render vtrgo.
In greater detail we can watch the conflict of interpretation in the
writings of many of the Fathers, and first in Justin Martyr (Dial. 43, 48, 66,
67-71, 77 f., 84). In Justin's dialogue, Trypho the Jew maintains that
noSy means veavis and not irapdivos, and that the child to be born dudpurros
i^ dvdpd}irov was Hezekiah, the first-born (cp. c. 84) son of Ahaz. Justin
uses but a single argument against this, viz. that the birth of a first-born after
ordinary human intercourse would be no sign ; 7^-1* 8* 7" thus combined
(though 8* refers to Isaiah's son !) explains to believers what is, and what Is.
elsewhere (53^) implies to be, inexplicable to men in general, viz. that the
birth of Jesus the Messiah will take place without loss of virginity by His
mother : Justin does not reject Trypho's statement that such an interpretation
makes the prophecy as silly as the Greek fable of the birth of Perseus from
VII. i2-i6 135
the union of Zeus with the virgin Danae, but argues that the Greek fable is a
devilish imitation of the prophecy, which is a prediction of actual fact.
Very different from the rhetoric of Justin is the refutation of the Jewish
theory by Jerome. Following Eusebius {Dem. Ev. vii. i), he shows that
Hezekiah was already born before the sign was given (2 K 16* 18', 2 Ch. 28^),
and by a philological argument defensible then, though so no longer, argues
that noVy meant "virgoabsconditaet secreta, quae nunquam virorum patuerit
aspectibus." The child to be born so long afterwards will yet be able to save
immediately, for he is identical with Him who appeared to Abraham and
spoke to Moses ; and, a point already made by Irenaeus (iii. 21. 4), he will
be no phantasm, but will eat butyrum et mel in proof of his humanity. For
further patristic interpretations, see Iren. Haer. iii. 2i^"* ; Tert. Adv. MarCy
iii. 13, iv. 10, Adv. Jud. 9 ; Origen, Contra Celsum^ i. 34 f. ; Eus. Dem.
Ev. vii. I ; Cyril. Hier. Cat. xii. ; Basil. Comm. in Is. ; Cyril. Alex. In Is.
The patristic criticisms of the early Jewish theory, that the child to
be bom was Hezekiah, had its effect ; when we come to mediaeval Jewish
scholars we find them identifying the noVy either (i) with the wife of Isaiah
— a view already mentioned as that of some Christians {qutdam de nostris)
by Jer. ; so Rashi, Ibn Ezra ; or (2) with another wife of Ahaz, Ki.
Protestant scholars in the i6th cent, follow in the main the traditional
Catholic tradition, though Luther (cited by Del.) and Calvin, for example, are
Mailing to grant that Tvch]} need not necessarily mean, though here, as often,
it actually does refer to, a woman still virgin. Pellicanus attributed to the
passage a double meaning — the current Christian interpretation and, for
Ahaz who could not appreciate this, the meaning that "quae hodie virgo est
propediem conceptura sit et filium paritura qui et nomen habiturus sit Im-
manuel in signum proxime ingruentis redemptionis vestrae." Later, Grotius
abandoned the traditional Christian interpretation. The Catholic J. L.
Isenbiehl in 1778 published a monograph, Neuer verstuh iiber die Weissa-
gung vom Immanuely in which he argued at length that the prophecy related
to the time of Isaiah ; he also argued that the noVy was some woman present
at the interview, and that the article was used deiKTiKus. Isenbiehl
suffered heavy pains and penalties for his temerity (see Ges. p. 309) ; but
from this time onward an exclusive Messianic interpretation became increas-
ingly less frequent, and an increasing number, especially of Protestant scholars
(see Che.'s article "Immanuel," in EBi.), denied that the prophet intended
to make any reference to the birth of Jesus.
But no sooner had Christian scholars begun in numbers to accept the
fundamentally more defensible interpretation of the Jews than Rosenmiiller
gave a new turn to the Messianic interpretation, substantially anticipating
an exegetical theory which has recently been expounded and defended by a
number of scholars — Gressmann, Jeremiais, Box, Burney. Rosenmiiller in
a monograph published in Gahler^s Journal /. auserlesenetheol. Lit. 1806, and
in the 2nd edit, of his Scholia, argued that Isaiah did definitely intend to
speak of the virgin-birth of the Messiah, and in defence of this view appealed
to numerous ancient myths which speak of great men born of virgins or in
other marvellous ways. Rosenmiiller cites many of these ; and it is now
possible to survey them conveniently in E. S. Hartland, The Legend of
136 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Perseus^ vol. i. ; but Ges. rightly disputes the relevance of them to the passage
in Isaiah. Recent exponents of this theory lay stress, in particular, on what
is claimed to have been a belief dominating the entire Orient (Jeremias) ;
Burney recalls the remarkable circumstances attending the birth of many
Hebrew heroes (Gn 11^ i8^^- 2521^- 30^, Jg 13, i S i), and the birth and
infancy of Sargon of Agade ; he appeals to Mic 5^ to show that in the age
of Isaiah the birth of a great deliverer was expected, and he argues that
Isaiah's sign consists in setting a time in the immediate future when the
damsel, well known to every one from the part assigned to her in the current
expectation, would bring forth the Deliverer in marvellous circumstances
befitting his high destiny : see/TAS x. 580-584. All such theories are vitiated
by the fact that Is y^'^-^^ speaks clearly of a Deliverance, but is silent as to a
Deliverer: it is not said that Immanuel will deliver, and the passive in v.^'
rather clearly implies that he will not. Different forms of another improbable
theory, noted in EBt. (/.^.), and recently favoured by Whitehouse, treat no^yn
as a personification (cp. nSnn, Am 5^) of the house of David, or the com-
munity of §ion, Immanuel as the new generation, or the ideal ruler.
17-25. A prophecy, or a collection of prophetic frag-
ments, predicting ruin and especially depopulation of a
country which, according to v.^^, is unmistakably Judah.
Attempts have been made to discover a connection, either
between vv.^*^^ and ^"^'^ or, v.^^ being omitted as a gloss, between
1-^^ and ^^"2^ If v.^*^ (with its reference to Judah) be omitted,
18-25 can be treated (Hackm. p. 66) as an amplification in detail
of what is stated summarily, but sufficiently, in v.^^^, the ruin of
Ephraim and Syria. But the theory of Du., Che., Marti, that
v.i^ is a gloss written to connect vv.^'^^ and vv.^^-^^ founders on
the fact that it is particularly between v.i^ and y.^"^ that the lack
of connection is most conspicuous ; ffir feeling this supplied dAAa
at the beginning of v.^^. To attribute v.^^ to a glossator who
wished to create a connection between ^-^^ and ^^"^^ is at the
same time to accuse him of failing in his attempt. The entire
tenor of ^'^^ as interpreted above is that Judah has nothing
to fear, is not to suffer ruin ; the entire tenor of w.^^-^^ is that a
most complete ruin is impending over the country: of course
either Isaiah himself or a glossator may very well have held
that these two contrary fortunes were to be successive stages in
the future, but v.^^ fails to mark a transition from one stage to
another. Or again, Isaiah's promise of (lasting) safety for Judah
may have been and indeed was (cp. v.'-^) conditional, so that
vv.17-25 would have been intelligible if they had immediately
followed v.i^ ; we could have understood Isaiah illustrating his
VII. 17-25 137
general principle enunciated in v.® by saying to Ahaz, You have
refused to believe, therefore Judah shall not stand but come to
ruin. He does not do this, but makes the promise of w.^**^^.
After that, to such a threat as is contained in w.i7-26 some clearly
marked transition would be required. Even if it were correct
to see in v.^^ a threat, it would still remain altogether forced and
artificial to treat vv.^^ and ^'^ together as the ground of vv.^* and
^5 taken together, v.^^ justifying the promise of v.^* and v.^^ the
threat of v.^^; and yet this is the best that can be done to
connect the two passages — a significant indication that there
is no organic connection. Vv.^-^^ and ^"^-^^ are of independent
origin. They were placed in juxtaposition by an editor, possibly
on account of the similarity of vv.^^^- and y.^^.
Some early annotations have crept into the text : such are
the words " the king of Assyria " (vv.^^ and ^o) at least, as most
scholars since Houb. and Lowth have recognised, perhaps also
(Du., Mar.) "at the end of the streams of Egypt" and "which
is in the land of Assyria" (v.^^). Even what is left after the
removal of these notes looks more like an editor's collection
and restoration of fragments than a prophetic poem in its original
form : note the recurrent " And it shall come to pass in that
day " (vv.^^- ^o- 21. 23j^ ^^e awkward fourfold occurrence of n\T in
V.23, and the apparent mixture of rhythmical and unrhythmical
elements. To what part of Isaiah's lifetime the groundwork
belonged, and what precisely are the limits of Isaiah's work,
cannot be determined with certainty.
17. Yahweh will bring upon thee] the words are addressed to
a king of Judah — possibly Ahaz in any case, and certainly if
v.^^ is the continuation of v.^^. — Days such as have not come] the
loss of the ten tribes was as nothing to the loss of population
that now awaits Judah — such is probably the thought of the
writer ; but an early annotator explained these words as mean-
ing the king of Assyria. — Since Ephraitn withdrew from union
with Judah] Ephraim is used for the entire Northern kingdom,
as in 9^ and Hos. The standpoint is obviously that of Judah. —
18 f. Under the figure of swarming and ferocious insects the
writer predicts that Yahweh is about to bring on Judah (v.^^) an
overwhelming invasion. If his verses have reached us in their
original form, he expected invasion from both Assyria and
Egypt — a point of view which finds an incomplete parallel in
138 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
J
Hos 9^, and none at all in Isaiah. Elsewhere Isaiah feared
alliance with (chs. 29-30), not invasion from, Egypt. Moreover,
previous to Sabako's accession, ^.712 B.C., Egypt was too weak
to cause much fear in her neighbours. If which is in the end
of the streams of Egypt and which is in the land of Assyria
are notes added to the text by an annotator who mistakenly
inferred that two insects must imply two nations,* Isaiah was
predicting here, as elsewhere, an Assyrian invasion. The
omission of the prosaic annotations leaves two almost perfect
distichs 4 : 4 —
Yahweh will whistle for the fly and the bee.
And they will come . . . and settle all of them,
In inaccessible wadys and clefts of the rocks.
And on all the thorn-bushes and all the pastures.
Will whistle'] cp. 5^^, Zee 10^, with men as obj. ; here perhaps the
word is used in strict keeping with the figure. Bochart {Hieroz,
Lib. iv. c. X.) has collected a number of ancient testimonies to
the custom of summoning bees by various noises, such as the
clanging of brass instruments (Verg. Georgics, iv. 64), of which the
most pertinent, if it is not merely educed from the biblical
passages, is Cyril's comment on this v. : " Bee-keepers are ac-
customed to whistle {(rvpt^€Lv, as fflr here) to the bees, and so
entice them out of their hives to the flowers and herbs, or get
them in from the fields and make them stop at home." — Thefiy'\
Flies abounded in Egypt, but were, of course, frequent elsewhere,
though, curiously enough, allusions to the fly in the OT are con-
fined to this passage and Ec 10^ and the divine name Baal-zebub.
A further allusion to the flies of Egypt has been often but mis-
takenly discovered in 18^. Apart from the following clause the
fly would not suggest Egypt ; it suggests number (cp. Hom. //.
ii. 469) and noisomeness, not locality. — In the end of the streams
of Egypt'] in far-distant Upper Egypt. The plural streams (D^IX^)
is also used of Upper Egypt in Nah 3* : ffi here has the sing. —
The dee] a figure for persistent, numerous and ferocious enemies ;
see Dt I**, Ps it 8^2, also Homer, //. ii. 87 fl". ; the bees of the
East are a far more aggressive race than those of England (EBi.f
s.v. Bee). — And settle] v.^ n. The figure is maintained: the
invading insects settle in such places as they are wont to settle
*Du., Che., Marti.
4
VH. 18-22 139
in, where they can find food and shelter; but there is also
probably an implicit resolution of the figure ; the Jews will find
no escape from the Assyrians even in inaccessible wadys and in
clefts of the rocks (cp. Dt 720). — Thorn- (?) bushes and pastures (?)]
ffi caves and clefts. But although the 2nd term (o^i^^jna) occurs
nowhere else and the first (D^vivy:) only once (55^^ sing.), it is
probable that both refer to feeding-places of insects : see, further,
phil. n. — 20. A new figure of devastation and depopulation :
here, whatever may be the case in v.^^ Yahweh's agent (cp. 10'')
is Assyria only. In i^^- Judah is personified as a man with no
sound spot left in his body ; here, as a man who is to be subjected
to the extreme ignominy of being shorn of his hair from head to
foot (cp. 2 S 10*). — With a razor] correctly, but unnecessarily —
for Assyria is sufficiently indicated by the phrase (in the parts)
beyond the River ^ i.e. the Euphrates (cp. Jos 242 and often) — an
annotator added, with the king of Assyria. The razor is said
to be hired^ because Yahweh pays for services rendered: cp.
Ezk 29^^-. Others see in the expression an allusion to Assyria
hired by Ahaz's tribute (2 K 16'^^-). — The hair of the feet] euphe-
mistic : cp. " water of the feet," 36^2 . ^p^ ^Iso 62. — 21, 22. These
verses no doubt contained a further picture of the ruin and de-
population of the country; but as they now stand in J^ they
seem to speak, in the main, of abundance — there is to be an
abundant yield of milk, and every one is to find good food {curds
and honey) to eat. It is true that here as in v.^* (see n. there)
most modern interpreters have endeavoured, contrary to the
regular force of the phrase, to make eating curds and honey
mean privation; Del., for example, writes, "Whoever has
escaped . . . eats curds and honey : this, and nothing but this,
without change ad nauseam.''^ Others make the expression
typical of nomadic fare, and so indirectly of (relative) privation.
But the earlier interpreters, like C, which paraphrases " on curds
and honey shall all the righteous live," and the mediaeval Jewish
commentators, Rashi, Ki., Ibn Ezra, were certainly right in re-
taining here the well established meaning of the expression.
Yet though the allusions in the v. to abundance must not be
explained away, there are also suggestions of privation : for a
man to succeed in keepifig alive a you?tg cow and two fe?nale
("•nc), i.e. milch, sheep, or goats (|KV), is not a sign of wealth, and
the phrase all that are left in the tnidst of the land suggests that
140 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
the people are not only poor but few. Justice can be done both
to the suggestions of privation and to those of abundance if it be
assumed that J^ has been (accidentally) amplified and that (& is
the better reading ; read : and it shall come to pass in that day, {if)
a man shall preserve alive a young cow and two {milch) sheep, then
it shall come to pass that owing to the abundatice of the yield of
milk, every one that is left in the midst of the land shall eat curds
and honey ; this is an effective picture of depopulation : two or
three cattle will yield more than enough for the handful of
survivors, and enable them to enjoy the best of fare. The
difficulties of the vv. are insufficiently met by simply eliminating
from 1^ because of the abundance of milk, he shall eat curds, as "an
eschatological fragment describing the happy lot of those who
live on into the New Era" (Box). Nor do these words in
themselves ring true to the custom of the country where the
milk is likely to be consumed by preference in the form of curds
(nKDPi), whether it be abundant or not. — 23-25. The whole
country will go out of cultivation, even the land where the
richest vines were trained will, like the rest, yield only thorns
and briats, or (v.^^) at best serve for grazing : cp. 5^*^* 32^2f.^ — ^
thousand vines at a thousand of silver shekels, i.e. vines worth a
shekel (about 2s. 6d.) a piece — a high price (cp. Ca. 8^^),
greatly in excess of the normal value of a vine in modern Syria,
which, acccording to Del., is a piasta, i.e. about twopence. —
Shall be for'\ shall belong to (p n-n^ as 17^) thorns and briars. — 24.
Through fear of wild animals, which will house there, or to gain
food from the chase, men will not go into this thicket covered
country without bows and arrows. — 25. And all the hills which
used to be hoed with the hoe, thou shall not come thither out of fear
of thorns and briars ; this is partly a repetition of v.^^, and the
change to the 2nd sing, is without apparent reason. Probably
the text has suffered more or less : see phil. n.
17. mn'] ffi 6 ^c6s. — ySv . . . n'^^] Sv ki3, Sv N'an, rarely used of
bringing good fortune (Jos 23'^ cp. Gn 27^^), is commonly used of mis-
fortune {e.g. 47», Dt2926, I K g^).— nt^N] such as: cp. e.g. Ex io« 34^*.—
dvd'?] the double prep, as Jg IQ^", 287^: see BDB 583^.— '?yD . . . nio]
to withdraw from union with ; for the force of the compound prep. cp.
Jer 32*0 (same phrase), 2 K 1721, Is 56^ ; BDB 759a.— 18. ninan] cp. 5« n. ;
apparently mnan 'Vna means ivadys of the cut off places, i.e. ravines of the
precipices (BDB), inaccessible ravines. The Versions seem to have guessed at
the meaning. — D'xisyi] in Is 55^^ psya is clearly a plant or bush of some kind :
■-
VII. 17-25, VIII. 1-4 14^
aSt there renders by (rroifi^ ; and this, according to Pliny, 21. 15, § 54> ^^ ^
plant with a prickly stalk. U hex^frutetis. In favour of the meaning 2i prickly
shrub or thorn bush in particular it is customary to refer to the New Hebrew
fyj ; but though this certainly means to thrust or wedge in^ it much less
certainly means to prick (cp. Levy, s.v.). The Arabic dictionaries (Freytag),
however, cite ^yaxi as the name of a prickly shrub frequently found in the
Hejaz. — D'SSnj] Not, of course, from v/*?^, as C takes it (nnnncnn 'M, cp.
"commendable trees," RV marg.), but from Vnj (Barth, NB^ § 142), the
primary meaning of which appears to have been to lead to a watering place ;
like ^y^t^X/*, therefore, ^^."T3 may have meant watering plcue, or perhaps
more generally pastures. AV bushes goes back on an etymologically
unsupported guess of Jewish scholars (Saad., Abul-Walid). — 20. rjT3rn nyn|]
MT assumes that nyn is cstr. ; but though in Ps 52* nyn is masc, it is
shown by nson below to be fem. here. Point, therefore, morn nyng ;
cp. (& T<fi ^vp<p T(^ fx€fjLi<xd(t)fi^v(^ (or fi€fxedv(rfi4v(p = nT^v), H novcuula con-
ducta. — nnj nnyn] the pi. nay might mean the parts beyond (Ges. 124^),
and nnj (without the art. ) Euphrates : cp. Jer 2^^ But read inan naya (ffi
Trkpav rov TToranoO). — 22. '3 nNDn h^H"] (& om. If the omission from dB is
not accidental, but represents the original text (see above), the addition of
the words in ^ may be due to the incorporation of a Hebrew variant in
which SaK' preceded instead of following cam nKOn. — 23. .t.t (2)] like pmy
of what used to recur (Driver, § 30). — 1D3 'jSna] Beth pretii: G-K. 119/.
For the omission of ^pr (supplied by CR), see G-K. I34«. — 24. «3'] for the
indef. subj., see G-K. 144^; the expression of the indef. subj. by the 2nd
sing. (K3n V.25) is rarer; G-K. 144A. — 25. n'ri TOr nxT nor Nun-K*?] may
well be intrusive (cp. Box), and is perhaps a variant (slightly corrupt) of
n'n . . . nor M3' in v.^*. Nun is probably wrong, Q.nd perhaps <& (^xei 0(J/3o5
^orat 7A/3 dir6 r^s X'^P<^°^ '^^'^ dKdvdrjs els (idaKruxa.) may point to further
corruption. For the ace. of cause "lOr nxT, which is common in Arabic
(Wright, Arabic Grammar, 44^ = ^ ii. p. 132), see G-K. 118/; Kon. iii.
332/ ; for nxT, terror, dread, cp. Dt 2^, Ps 55*. It is altogether improbable
that nNT is subj. of Nun (AV). Nor is Kennedy's suggestion. If (n^) thou
wert to go thither, then thou shouldest see (hnii for hkt), convincing ; but he
has good reason to suspect the text and existing interpretations of it {Exp.
Times, viii. 477 f.).
VIII. 1-4. Maher-shalal-bash-baz. — A further extract
from Isaiah's autobiography (Introd. §§ 34, 38). Some time
before the fall of Damascus (732 b.c.), Isaiah, at the command of
Yahweh, records in two different ways and at different times his
conviction of the approaching fate of both Damascus and Samaria:
(i) he writes down, or engraves, in the presence of witnesses, the
legend, "Belonging to Maher-shalal-ljash-baz (spoil is speedy —
plunder hasteneth)"; (2) nearly a year later he names his new-
born son Maher-shalal-bash-baz, in the expectation that Assyria
4
142 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH ^g|
will have despoiled both Damascus and Samaria before the clinc
is more than about a year old.
The point of view is the same as in 7^^^^ ; only the security
of Judah against Ephraim and Syria is there explicitly, is here
implicitly, asserted. In 7^*^^ Isaiah addresses the king, here he
makes his outlook on affairs known to the people at large.
It is probable that Isaiah crystallised his teaching into the
phrase Maher-shalal-hash-haz de/ore Ahaz, by appealing to
Assyria, gave the people of Judah reason, beyond or apart from
the prophet's word, to hope that Samaria and Damascus would
be spoiled. The inscription may have been engraved in 735 B.C.,
the child born and named in 734.
In 710-16 gi-* Isaiah predicts three features, or stages, in the immediate
future: (i) the relief of Judah, 7"; (2) the desolation of Ephraim and
Syria, 7^* ; (3) the spoiling of Samaria and Damascus, 8^ ; according to a
frequent but improbable interpretation (see on 714-I6) he also predicted
(715. i7ff.) (^j the desolation of Judah.
The first stage he expected within nine or ten months at most of his
interview with Ahaz (7^^) ; the second within two or three years after the
first (f^). The fourth, if really referred to in 7"- "^s would fall after (2).
Possibly Isaiah placed (3) between (i) and (2); for the stage in child life
defined in 8"* is somewhat earlier than that defined in 7** ; on the other hanci,
Maher-shalal-hash-baz may not have been born till some months after Isaiah
expected the birth of Immanuel ; and, moreover, Isaiah may never have
sharply defined the chronological relation of (2) and (3).
On the main issue Isaiah's prophecies were justified. Judah was quickly
relieved, much of Ephraim and Syria desolated, and Damascus captured and
spoiled, within three years of the interview with Ahaz. The destruction of
Samaria was deferred another ten or eleven years — rather longer than Isaiah
anticipated.
I. A large tablet] In 2!^^ ]'\'h^ is some ornament or article
of toilet, and possibly a hand mirror of polished metal, which
reflects and so reveals irhi) the beholder. So some under-
stand |Vf>i to be here a polished tablet of wood (Ezk 37^'^),
or stone (Ex 34^), or metal (Job iq^^?) for receiving writing.
But the Mishnah use of the word for the margin, i.e. the still
blank part of a page, suggests that pvJ may have been widely
applicable to any blank surface intended for writing, whether
tablets, parchment, or papyrus ; ffi to/xoi/ (xaprov) Kaivov, Aq.
K€<^aAt8a, Symm. tcvx©?; ST trh. Whatever it was, the object
being large would be conspicuous and attract attention. — Write
upon it in common characters (?)1 The exact force of {5^3^ Din is
f
VIII. I, 2 143
uncertain, but the general sense seems to be, write so that every
one who sees this conspicuous tablet may be able to read it ; cp.
Hab 2*. IDin (Ex 32* t ?) is, apparently, a synonym for oy (Jer
17I, Job 19^*), and means a stylus \ 8^365 is a poetical synonym
for B'^K, so that on the analogy of K^K riDK, an ordinary cubit
(Dt 3^^), Kn3K t3"in should mean an ordinary stylus. C (cp. Di.)
paraphrases write clearly ; but it would presumably be as easy to
write illegibly with an ordinary as with an extraordinary stylus.
Perhaps Din also meant written character \ cp. "style," from
"stylus," "to write round hand" -, then the command is to use
the ordinary alphabet with which every one was familiar
Benzinger {Arch.^ 176 if.) thinks that the implied contrast is
between the human, i.e, the Phoenician, and the divine (Ex 31^®
32^^), i.e. the cuneiform, characters, both of which he infers
were concurrently in use as late as the 7th century ; two cunei-
form contract tablets discovered at Gezer were drawn up in
649 and 647 B.C. respectively, and in one of these one of the
parties is a Jew. Sta. (ZATIV, 1906, pp. 135 f.) also argues that
the implied antithesis is human and divine, but that what is
referred to is the substance of the inscription, not the character
in which it is written. — Belonging to Maher-shalal-hash-baz\ the
legend is in form like that inscribed by Ezekiel on two sticks
(Ezk 37^^), or those which occur on old Hebrew or Canaanite
seals ; cp. e.g. " Belonging to Shama* the servant of Jeroboam "
(DVm^ 12J? V^^% the legend on a seal of about the 9th cent.
B.C. discovered at Megiddo, and reproduced in Steuernagel, Tell
el Mutesellim^ 117: also in Driver, Modern Research as illustrat-
ing the Bible, p. 91 ; for other examples, see Cooke, North-Sem.
Inscriptions^ 360 f.; Lidzbarski, Ephemeris^ ii. i4off. — The name
means, swift is the spoil to come, speedy is the prey, and
portends the imminent destruction of Samaria and Damascus
(v.*). — 2. The inscription is to be witnessed by credible witnesses.
In 6r, V.2 continues the command of v.^ and cause trustworthy
witnesses to attest the writing ^r me (Yahweh). This is probably
right. J^ may be rendered, and I caused^ etc. ; or and I will cause
(MT, EV) ; in the former case the first person refers to Isaiah, in
the latter to Yahweh. Of the two witnesses, Uriah the priest ^2&
certainly a person of importance (2 K 1 6i<^-i6) ; Zechariah was
probably of similar standing. Neither was necessarily a close
friend of the prophet ; their testimony would be more effective
^r
144
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
if they were not. — It is generally inferred (i) that Isaiah put up
his inscription in some public place for all to read, and (2) that
he had it witnessed, so that when events proved his forecast
correct, the prophet might be believed to have spoken the word
of Yahweh; (i) is a reasonable inference from the size of the
tablet and from C^1J&< D*in3, if the interpretation given above is
correct ; (2) is the only reasonable inference from v. 2. Yet it is
not entirely clear why an inscription publicly exposed long before
it was verified by events required witnesses ; they would be more
necessary for a document sealed and put away for a time (cp.
v.^^). — 3. Then I drew near] Not JVow I had drawn near : the
tense cannot be pluperfect (Driver, Tenses^ § 76 Obs.). It would
be better to assume a misplacement (cp. 3821) of vv.^^' than
a plupf. sense for anpNI. If vv.^^- stood before vv.^^-, the tablet
of v.^ would have a clear destination ; it would be for Isaiah's
son. As the text stands, the tablet is inscribed with a name that
attaches to no one. — The prophetess] nN^33 here means the wife of
a prophet, as riD^D commonly means the wife of a king. Isaiah,
unlike Amos (7^^), did not repudiate the title prophet.
I, ino] is a verbal adj. quick to come (cp. Zeph i^^ unless nno should be
read nnoD), and B'n a part. It would, however, be equally possible to point "irtp
and take both verbs as prophetic perfects. — 2. m'i'Ni] MT n^'i'^i, but point
preferably, if |^ be retained, nryxi, arid I took \ Sta. ZATW, 1906, p. 136.
dR Kal fxdpTvpds fioi iroLrfcrov, i.e. m'y.Ti, of which it is just possible that %l is
merely an Aramaic scribe's orthography. Cp. (Ibn Ezra) ')"^Kn '3 D'nDN tsf
H"n nnn. — hv'] G-K. 144^: cp. K3', 7^ (n.).
5-10. The Extreme Peril and Complete Security of
Judah. —
The prevailing rhythm, though, in the present text, at all events, it is not
maintained unbroken, is 4 : 4 in vv.""^ ; 3 : 3 in vv.'*^".
JudaJUs Peril,
^ Because this people have rejected
The gently flowing waters of Shiloah, a a
■^ Therefore behold the Lord is causing to rise a
The mighty and many waters of the River, a a
And it shall rise over all its channels,
And go over all its banks,
^ And it shall sweep on into Judah, an over-flowing flood,
, . . reaching even to the neck.
VIII. i-io 145
Judah^s Safety.
• ••••••a
^ And his outstretched wings will cover
The entire width of the land —
For God is with us.
• Take knowledge ye peoples and be dismayed,
Give ear all ye distant parts of the earth, a
1^ Plan plans, and they shall come to nought,
Scheme schemes, and they shall not be carried out :
For God is with us.
Textual corruption, the intrusion of glosses, — omitted in
the preceding translation, — and, probably, the juxtaposition of
passages of different origin, have obscured the meaning of these
verses.
yv.6-8b predict, under the figure of a vast flood, due to the
rise of the Euphrates, which is to inundate the land of Judah to
a dangerous depth, the devastation of Judah by Assyria ; ww.^-^^
the complete security of Judah owing to the presence of God,
which frustrates the hostile plans of the nations of the world.
There is no transition from the one theme to the other, but
there is probably a change of rhythm, — facts which point to
yy 6-8b 2tx\di ^^'^^ being of different origin.
Yy 6-8b are rather later than the interview with Ahaz (7^'^^),
if the conclusion is right that Isaiah's object at that time was to
enforce the security of Judah from the Syro-Ephraimitish attack.
Yy sc-io are probably post-exilic (see below), and contain
a fragment of a poem which consisted of short stanzas closing
with the refrain, "For God is with us." On account of the
refrain the poem was given a place near 7^*.
5. Cp. 7^^. — 6-8b. Because Judah has rejected Yahweh,
therefore Yahweh will subject Judah to a devastating Assyrian
invasion. — This people\ 6® n. Here the phrase clearly means the
Jews, see v.^. The entire people, and not only the king's court
(7^3) are here condemned. — The gently flowing waters of ShiloaK\
the waters of Shiloah are the waters flowing from the one
spring in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, the modern *Ain sitti
Maryam, which rises in a cave on the eastern declivity of the
eastern hill of Jerusalem, that is the ancient Mount Sion, about
VOL. I. — 10
n
146 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
353 yards south of the south-east angle of the Temple area : on
the opposite side of the ravine lies the modern village of Silwan
( = Shiloah), and lower down on the same side, at a distance in a
direct line of 1090 feet, the Birket, or *Ain, Silwan, probably
identical with the rh^n n3"i3 of Neh 3^^ The words, tke gently
flowing waters of Shiloah^ suggest waters whose flow could be
watched; they are not the waters of the tunnel in which the
Siloam inscription was found, even if that were as ancient as the
time of Ahaz (cp. 7^ n.), but they are either the water conveyed
by the open conduit, which existed before the tunnel, or more
probably the waters flowing down the valley (cp. G. A. Smith,
Jerusalem^ i. 90). From the nature of their source, these waters
must have flowed gently, and, like the artificially controlled water
of to-day, they doubtless served to irrigate the gardens of the
valley. These waters, then, were closely associated with Sion,
the site of Yahweh's temple and the royal palace ; and they were
the " living " waters of Jerusalem, as contrasted with the waters
stored in cisterns (cp. 7^ n.). Isaiah is obviously speaking in
metaphor ; the most probable explanation of the metaphor seems
to be that the living waters of Shiloah rising under Sion stand
for Yahweh, who in Jeremiah (2^^) is compared to a " fountain
of living waters." The waters of Shiloah, " however beneficent,
are to outward appearance insignificant " (Che.) ; so the power
of Yahweh, wlych had been the source of Judah's welfare {e.g,
5^^-), and to Isaiah seemed an all-sufificient ground for quiet
confidence (7* 30^^), was in the eyes of the people insignificant,
not to be trusted, but forsaken for other sources of strength (cp,
3o2- 12. 16 31I-8). For the " gentleness " of Yahweh's activity, cp.
Job 15^^. The explanations of "the waters of Shiloah" as the
house of David,* or as the Syro-Ephraimitish invasion,! or as an
allusion to some lost poem or some now unknown popular
idea, J may be dismissed. The last words of v.^, omitted from
the above translation, are awkward and difficult; if they have
any meaning (see phil. n.), the meaning is and a rejoicing (or,
and because they rejoice) with Reson and the son of Remaliah ;
which is inconsistent with the context, for the Jews, so far from
rejoicing with Reson and the son of Remaliah, stood in dread of
them (72^-1 An emended text (see phil. n.) may be rendered,
♦ Ibn Ezra. ' t F- C. Burkitt, infThS xii. 294.
X Gressmann, p. 68.
VIII. 6-8 147
And have melted with fear because of Reson^ etc. But (i) the
emendation is not free from serious objection ; (2) the immediate
transition which takes place, if the words be omitted, from the
figure of Shiloah with its gentle flow to the Euphrates in
desolating flood, is very eflective ; and (3) the words, like those
generally recognised to be a gloss in v.'^, form an isolated stichos.
Probably, therefore, Re^on and the son of Remaliah are an early
annotator's erroneous explanation of "the waters of Shiloah,"
and the first word of the v. (B^K^) a corrupt variant of D«0
above, or an isolated fragment, or possibly, as Bredenkamp,
Giesebrecht, and Burkitt have suggested, though on rhythmical
grounds this is not very probable, BnK'D is a synonym {oozing,
trickling ?) of Dn!? : note the two synonyms in v.''^. — 7. Yahweh
will punish His disloyal people by causing a fateful rise of the
Euphrates, i.e. by an Assyrian invasion : so the destruction of
Philistia by the Chaldaeans is predicted under the figure of a
fateful rise of the waters from the north (Jer 47^). The figure
here is blurred even in ^ and still more in EV, which makes
the king of Assyria overflow his banks and reach even to the
neck! An early annotator explained the River (720 n.) as the
king of Assyria and all his glory, and also perhaps added UTfhVy
against thetn, which explain rather unnecessarily the destination
of the flood. — 8. And it shall sweep on] for f[hn, cp. 21^. — Into
/udah] this is the destination of the desolating flow of waters :
nothing is said of the flood affecting Ephraim on the way, for
Ephraim is not in the poet's thoughts. — An overflowing flood]
more literally, having flooded and overflowed, unless, omitting the
waw, we restore the phrase used in Nah i*. — Reaching even to
the neck] of dangerous depth. Cp. "an overflowing torrent
reaching (nvn% synonymous with y^r here) up to the neck," 3028.
The swelling stream described in Ezk 47^-5 rose gradually from
being ankle-deep to being knee-deep and deep as the loins, after
which it became too deep to be passed through, and required to
be swum if the passage of it was to be safely made.
6. '3 ]]l'] 3^^ n.— pxT DK enro^] Di. explains MT thus : bibo is the constr.
case of nro (32^') before the prep, nn, and dependent on jr — on account of
the rejoicing with Res6n. Ges. similarly, except that he takes nK as the nota
ace. and cites 35^ (corrupt) as justifying nr with the ace. But nK bik^ is
very doubtful, and but partially paralleled by 5^^ or 9^. G-K. 130a cites no
case of the cstr. before the prep. nK and only one before nK, the sign of the
ace. — ^Jer 33^2 (text very doubtful ; cp. v.'*). Kon. (iii. p. 115 n. 3) suggests
148
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
that tyiB'Di may be inf. abs. {v^&^) with D prefixed to gain alliteration with
DND ; but it is doubtful wisdom to seek forced explanations of a text which is
exegetically condemned (see above). The emendation of the text adopted by
Du., Marti, and others goes back to a suggestion of Hitzig's, that vwd is a
mis written form of the like sounding didd, to melt away (in fear ; not used by
Is., but see 13^) ; then, inasmuch as ddd is not followed by the ace, it becomes^
necessary to emend further by reading 'jsd for hm ; that nt« was substituted by a
scribe for 'JSD after the hypothetical didd (inf abs. ) had become v\\on is improb-
able, inasmuch as 'JSD vr\& could not have seemed so strange as to demand
alteration. Du. further omits 'o at the beginning of the v. in order that \T
may govern DiDD. ffir apparently paraphrased the present text of |^, dXXd
jSoAec^at ?x^*'' 'Pao'O't*"' t^-oX rbv vlbv 'Po/j.e\iov j8a<rt\^a i4> iffiuv. — J. J37l] Waw
before ph is quite unusual ; ffi om. : it is probably dittographic. — Dn'^y] omit
(see above), and so restore a line of four accents. — VT\ii ^3 Sy ^m] cp. «'?D
vnnj '?3 Vy (of Jordan), Jos 3^°. — ']13B'] pf. in a description of the fut. to give
variety to the scene or confer emphasis on individual isolated traits in it (Dr.
§ 14 7) : nayi is co-ordinated with fpv (Dr. §§ 131, 132). But the writer may
have intended niyi fpi^ (G-K. 113^), if he did not actually write i3y r]Viv.
8a-iO. The safety of Judah. — The last words of v.^ are
obscure. If they are, as till Du. commentators always took
them to be, the direct continuation of v.^- ^ the pronouns in kis
(or its) outstretched wings must refer to the River, or, possibly, to
that of which the River is a figure, viz. Assyria or the king
of Assyria. The wings have been explained as " masses of water
branching off like wings from the main current" (Che. PI i. 53),
or as the cavalry of the Assyrian army (Ges.) ; then cp. the Lat.
alae, the Arabic Jj^^ --Uj»-» wings of the cavalry^ Siud. possibly
the Hebrew CaJK ; cp. ST "the people of his army." Others
see in the words the introduction of an entirely fresh figure. In
this case, if ^'^- ^ goes with ^'^^ the figure must be that of a hostile
bird of prey hovering over Judah (cp. Hos 8^, Ezk 17^"^^ Jer
48^^). But " the outstretched wings " far more naturally imply
protection; cp. Ru 2^2^ Ps 17^ 36^ 572 61^ 63^ 91*, Mt 23^^ =
Lk 13^* ; if that is implied here also, the point of the figure is that
, the entire land of Judah will dwell in safety under the protecting
wings of the Almighty, undisturbed by any futile raging of the
nations, vv.^^-. — The land. For God is with US'] this way of
reading the Hebrew consonants * is favoured by the recurrence
of the last clause, which may well have been a refrain (cp. Ps
46), in y}^. The consonants may also be divided as in J^, and
rendered either (i) thy land. God is with us; so ^ and Abarbanel
* Du., Che., Marti.
VIII. 8-IO 149
(cited by Vitr. p. i86); or (2) thy land^ O Imfnanuel', so dTSF,
Rashi, EV, and most interpreters. The last-mentioned inter-
pretation has to contend with the difficulty, never satisfactorily
met, of explaining an appeal to Immanuel, and the description of
Judah as his land ; even if Immanuel was some single definite
child, whose birth Isaiah expected (see on 7^*), he was not yet
born if this passage is continuous with 8^-^ ; and, if the passage be
later, and Immanuel the name of an actually existing person, it is
strange that no more is heard of him. To base a far-reaching
construction of Messianic belief on so ambiguous a passage is
a mistake. — 9 f, God's presence (in §ion) ensures the futility of
all schemes of the nations directed against the people of God.
The outlook resembles that of Pss 2 and 46, Ezk 38 f.. Is 54^*"^'^
and perhaps lo^^ (see note there), and the passage is probably no
earlier than these : in that case it owes its position here to one
of the post-exilic editors of the prophecies of Isaiah, and was
intended to alleviate the minatory tone of the preceding verses.
The argument against Isaiah's authorship of vv."* ^^ is well stated by
Marti: "If the 'peoples' of v.* could be Ephraim and Syria, the verses
might refer to the protection of Judah in the Syro-Ephraimitish war. But
the peoples absolutely are addressed, and the Syrians and Ephraimites do not
dwell at the end of the earth. If it is urged that Isaiah immediately extends
his horizon from these neighbours to all peoples and all times, this is irrecon-
cilable with Isaiah's attitude to Assyria, whose plans s^ainst Judah he did
not expect to fail (vv.^* ^) ; finally, to limit the plans of the nations which
were to fail to the * bad ' plans and so to make an exception of Assyria, who
came commissioned by Yahweh, lays an emphasis on "lyi which it cannot bear,
even if that word were textually more certain than it is."
9. Take 'knowledge] a suitable parallel to give ear in the next
line : so ffi ( = Heb. lyi). Cp. Ps 46" (lo), l^ss probable is the
reading of J^ iy"», rendered associate yourselves in AV, or make
an uproar^ RV : see phil. n. — Be dismayed] this is the regular
meaning conveyed by the root nnn in Heb. ; see, e.g., 20^ 31**^
3727 5i7j and note the frequent parallelism with 6<1"', to fear {e.g,
Dt 1^^). Cp. Assyr. hattu, terror. Some render be shattered, see
phil. n. on 7^; in this case, if f^ be followed in the previous
clause, the two imperatives constitute a virtual conditional
sentence (G-K. no/) — though ye make an uproar (?), ye shall
be shattered. — All ye far parts of the earth] \\ to peoples used
absolutely, as is D^'5n"i» in Zee 10'. — f^, which is paraphrased
by ffi, adds the words Gird yourselves (cp. Job 38^) and be
ISO COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
i
dismayed (or shattered) (repeated twice) ; but see phll.' h.
10. Cp. 7^-^.
8. ^KuOy ISIk] in f^^ this could have been read equally well '?Ni3Dy 3 pK ;
o is written plene in the Siloam inscription and on the Moabite Stone ; but
the Phoenician inscriptions afford many examples of the form 3 ; e.g. "n»<ni
NH pis iVd 3 injB'i ID', Byblus Inscr. 1. 9; Cooke, N-Sem. Inscr. p. 18;
Lidzbarski, Nord. Sent. Ep. p. 295.
9. 1^1] The form cannot be satisfactorily explained. Explanations that
have been offered are that it is the impr. of (i) yyn, and means be wicked ;
or (2) of yjn, the Aramaic equivalent of ya^ and means breaks or more doubt-
fully still, be broken ; or (3) of yn, whence comes nynn, war-cry, and means
make an uproar ; but it is the Hiph. of this vb. that is used elsewhere ; or (4)
of nyn (whence ai), and means associate yourselves (RV 2nd marg.) ; but this
would require a reflexive conjugation. — u'tkhi] the 1 is probably dittographic :
6r iiraKoijffaTe. — {bis) inm nmnn] perhaps these rather curious clauses of two
accents, which do not agree with the prevailing 3 : 3 rhythm, are due to a
miswriting of iriKm inn.
11-15. The way of the prophet and his disciples and
the way of the people. — In an autobiographical note, Isaiah
records that Yahweh made a communication to him warning
him not to share the standpoint of his fellow-countrymen. The
lines that follow are not addressed to Isaiah only, for the 2nd
pers. plural is used throughout ; nor to the people at large (note
sy^% but to Isaiah and his disciples (cp. v.^^) ; these are not to
fear what the people at large fear, for danger does not lie where
the people fear it, but in Yahweh, whom they have ceased to fear
(cp. 31^'^) : He will destroy " many " of the two houses of Israel
and of Jerusalem, but, so it is implied, will save those who fear
Him.
It is commonly assumed that this section refers to the same period as 7^-
8*", i.e. the period of the Syro-Ephraimitish war — ** parallel to vv.*"^, but of
slightly earlier date " (Che. Introd. p. 40). Beyond the mere position of the
passage the positive grounds for this are two: (i) the '3 with which the
section opens ; precarious, for the word is absent from fflr^ ; (2) the allusion
to the alliance of Pekah and Reson supposed to occur in v.^^a^ This rests on
a text that is doubtful and, if correct, ambiguous. In any case the passage is
earlier than the fall of Samaria in 722 (v.^'*).
V.^^ is prose ; in vv.^2-15 ^j^g rhythm is irregular and uncertain. Vv.^^b.
^ and (more doubtfully) ^* are lines of 4 accents ; ^' is ambiguous : v.^^ falls
into no scheme, whether treated as one line (Du.) or two (Cond.).
1^ For thus Yahweh said unto me when the Hand grasped
(me) that he might warn me not to go in the way of this people,
saying,
VIII. 8-15 ^5'
** Ye shall not call ... all that this people calls . . •
And their fear ye shall not fear nor dread;
*' Yahweh of Hosts — him shall ye . . .
And he shall be your fear, and he your dread.
** And he shall become a . . . and a stone to strike
against,
And a rock of stumbling to both Houses of Israel;
A trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
^* And many of them shall stumble and fall, and be broken
And snared and captured.
11. When the hand grasped (me)] lit. wifh strength, or
pressure, of the hand of God ; with 'V\\ npTna, cp. 'h^ mn^ n*1
nptn, Ezk 3^*. The sense of prophetic inspiration was traced not
only to the invasion of the personality by the spirit of God, but
also to the hand of God, which, grasping and sometimes throwing
down (cp. ? Nu 24'^ i>B3) the recipient, induced the prophetic
trance or ecstasy (2 K 3!^). Ezek. has several allusions to the
hand of Yahweh as accompanying inspiration, see Ezk i^ 3^2 37I
(i^y nn-n), 8^ (f)y bam); cp. also Jer 1517, "because of thy hand
I have sat alone : for thou hast filled me with indignation."
That the communication which follows must be of an extra-
ordinary and special nature (Du.), is a precarious inference. —
That he might warn me not to go] 1^ may also be read ^3">p^
(cp. Dt 7*), and withdrew me from going. Isaiah, like Jeremiah
(1^17-21^^ may have had inward conflict in order to refram from
following the easier path of acquiescence.
12, 13. The two verses are negative and positive comple-
ments of one another. Not the way of the people (v. ^2), but of
Yahweh (v.^^), are Isaiah and his disciples to follow. Not the
baseless objects of the people's fear, but Yahweh, who alone has
power to destroy (vv.^^^-), are they to fear : cp. the antithesis in
Luke 12*^-. V.i2b and v.^^^ correspond to one another in the use
of terms ; but at present vv.^^a ^^^ isa ^Jq f,Qj . ^^ words left
untranslated above are ^^a (twice) "i^kJ'P, a conspiracy, but in 1**
ItJ^lpn, ye shall sanctify. It is not surprising, therefore, that it
has been proposed that BH'p, holy, should be read in v.^^a^* or
n^SJ'pn shall ye count a cofispirator in v.^f Still there are
* Seeker, Lowth, Lag., Sta. {ZATW, 1906, p. 137).
t Du., Hackm., Buhl (in Ges-B.).
152 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
difficulties in both suggestions and also in f^. Even ^^^ and ^^^
are ambiguous. So far as usage goes, their fear (ij^iid), viz. the
object of the people's fear, in v.^^a jjj^y be human beings, their
enemies Reson and Pekah, of whom, if vv.^^'^^ are a direct
continuation of 7^-8^®, it is natural to think ; cp. the use of KTiD
in Gn 9^, Dt ii^^ In this case the warning here addressed to
Isaiah and his disciples is substantially identical with the warning
addressed by Isaiah himself to Ahaz in 7*. On the other hand,
their fear^ if the passage stood by itself, would in view of v.^^
most certainly suggest supernatural objects of fear : Fear not the
gods of this people (cp. v.^^) : cp. the constant use of i<T of
fearing, i.e. worshipping, God, and the use of the synonymous
noun ins in the expression "fear of Isaac" (|| "God of Abraham")
in Gn 31^2, If the text of v.^^a |-,g sound, it would decide in favour
of the former of these interpretations. Keeping the text we may
render v. ^2*, Call not everything a conspiracy which this people
calls a conspiracy^ in defence of which Che. {Introd. 40) argues
that itJ^p (noun and verb) is " used of those leagues which have a
destructive object — leagues of subjects against a king (i 822^- 1^,
2 S 15^^' ^\ 2 K 11^*, Am 7^^), of men banded together for
immoral or heathenish ends (Jer 11^, Ezk 22^^), or of the
confederated enemies of a single nation (Neh 4^). This last
application of the term is suitable here. On the first news of
the Syro-Ephraimitish invasion there was a cry, "iK^p, i.e. the
enemies of Judah are confederated against it. But Isaiah is
warned by a strong impulse from above that this is an abuse of
terms. Syria and Israel are but " two stumps of smoking fire-
brands " : how can such feeble powers be said to have formed a
"iK^p ? {Binding implies strength : cp. D^ie'p, Gn 30^2)^ xhe
warning is expressed in general terms, "IK'K 73?, because the same
circumstances may arise again. To Isaiah a itJ'p only becomes
worthy of its name when Yahweh is the chief member of the
league, as when he " sends " Assyria " against the people of his
wrath" (10^). But the true fear of Yahweh, which shows itself
equally in obedience to His tord (see 1 10-1 7) and in perfect reliance
on His word of promise (7^), binds him to the side of his people."
Che., though agreeing substantially in interpretation with Du.,
prefers not to follow him in substituting for ItJ'npn, ye shall
sanctify^ the unique Hiphil 'n"'lt'pn — Yahweh of Hosts ^ him shall ye
make your conspirator. " Those who sanctify him," he adds. " by
VIII. 13-14 153
fearing Yah web in the right way . . . make Yah web their ally."
The very elaboration of this interpretation makes it doubtful ; it
also fails effectually to parry Di.'s criticisms. The combination
of Syria and Ephraim was a fact ; it was no part of Isaiah's work
to quibble over the use of terms, whether to call this combination
a conspiracy or something else ; he differed from the people not
as to the fact, nor as to the name by which it should be called,
but as to the interpretation of it : to them it was dangerous, in
Isaiah's judgment it was not. They feared that the " destructive
object " of the league would be attained : Isaiah, without denying
that the league had a destructive object, was convinced that it
would fail. Di. himself interprets the term conspiracy of the
understandings which the people imagined to exist between
Isaiah and the enemy (cp. the suspicions that fell upon
Jeremiah), but which did not exist in fact : he further suggests
that these popular suspicions had made Isaiah's disciples begin
to doubt whether Isaiah's principles were sound. This interpre-
tation also is unconvincing and fails more than the other to
account for the antithetical line, v.^**. The narrower context of
vv. 12-16 strongly favours the emendation KHp in v.^^a suggested by
IK^npn (v.^*^) : Ye shall not call everything holy that this people call
holy . . . Yahweh of Hosts ^ him shall ye hallo7v (cp. 2922^- ? late);
but if w.^^'^^ be the continuation of 7^-8^<*, the wider context is
against it. Either w.^^'^^ were not originally the direct continua-
tion of what precedes, or they call for a more satisfactory inter-
pretation than they have yet received. — 14. And he shall become
a sanctuary^ if the text is correct, which is very doubtful, this
means He will become a holy object, which no man touches or
injures unpunished — cp. 5^® (Di.). To interpret * He shall be
an asylum (cp. Ezk ii^^, also Ex 21^*, i K i'^^') for those who
hallow Him, but to others a cause of ruin, is to create an anti-
thesis which does not exist in the text. Not improbably ^inpy:h
is a corruption of ^p\o\ which was itself erroneously substituted
from the following distich for the term which stood in the original
text. — The two Houses of Israel] the Northern and Southern
kingdoms. Marti suspects that the phrase is a generalising sub-
stitution for " men of Judah." — A trap and a lure] the figure is
resumed in v.^^^ The HD (mod. Ar.fakh; PEF Qu. St., 1905,
p. 38) is a trap kept open till the bird, alighting on a trigger,
• MX accents, F, RV.
154 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
causes the trap to close and itself to be caught. Whether S^pltD
was the name for such a (baited) trigger (cp. Am 3^ |^ ; but see
ffi), or for a snare^ or noose (Kennedy, EBi. 1561), or (if J^p^ =
B^p3, to strike) for a clap-board (cp. /3.), which strikes the enticed
bird down, is not clear. But in certain passages K'pio seems to
have the meaning, whether original or derived, of lure (cp. e.g. i S
1 821, ps 1 06^6) ; so, too, both here and in Jer 502* (|^) the vb. CTp*
expresses what precedes the act of capture {^y>\ presumably the
act of alluring or enticing, though in Pr 6^, it is true, Cp^ seems
to be more exactly synonymous with Id!?, and in Ec 9^2 ^j^h
tnt?. — Be broken] of broken limbs, as Ex 22^- 1^, La ii^*.
II. '3] ffl<S om.— npma] some MSS npins. — 'jno'i] Not pf. Piel of 10%
for the waw conv. with the impf. would be the correct cstr. to express and he
instructed me (RV). It may be either the impf. Kal with simple waw (Dr.
§ 59 ff. ) of "10% that he might admonish me, which is a little unnatural, or
impf. Hiph. with waw conv. of "iiD. ffi &ireidov<rtv probably connected the
form with T10. — 12. TK'p] (ffir, both times, crK\rjp6v, i.e. rivp. If np was the
original reading, the transposition of the last two letters which produces f^
nrp had taken place earlier than (&. — 13. mK3s] (K om. — DSKmD] (ffi 2nd sing.
suf. — DDJinyo] Hiph. part. ; but with a different sense from the Hiphil in v.*"^
and 29^ : hence Gra., Du. suggest DDinyD, a noun parallel to ODKniD. — 14. '3«r]
(&^ om. — 3^'] some MSS and the VV "ivv — note " following.— 15. D3] among
them : cp. Ex. 14*, Lv 26^*. Others give 3 its instrumental sense — by means
of them, i.e. the rocks just mentioned.
16-18. The Epilogue to Isaiah's Memoir. — ^^ {I wilt)
tie up the testimony {and) seal the teaching in (?) my disciples.
^"^ And I will wait for Yahweh who hideth his face from the
House of Jacobs and I will look for him, ^' Behold, I and the
children whom Yahweh hath given to me are for signs and
portents in Israel from Yahweh of Hosts who dwelleth in
Mount ^ion.
In spite of some ambiguity in v.^*, these words read like
the conclusion of the autobiographical memoir which recorded
Isaiah's teaching during the Syro-Ephraimitish war by word and
symbol and the significant names of his children, Shear-Jashub
and Maher-shalal-hash-baz. They also give the impression that
Isaiah realised that a stage in his ministry was closed ; that for
an indefinite time to come he might speak to his people no
more as he had been speaking ; a time of waiting for Yahweh —
of waiting in perfect confidence — lay before him ; and during
this time his teaching would be with (? incorporated in) his
VIII. 11-15, i6-i8 155
disciples, and perpetually eloquent in himself and the names of
his children. The words received of Yahweh at the time of his
call have come true : the people have not listened, and Yahweh
is alienated from them. True, too, has proved the conviction
that led him to name his child " A Remnant shall return " : he
has not indeed led Judah to repentance; but he has made
disciples. If the doubtful and ambiguous v.^^ will bear the
weight of the conclusion, those are not wrong who see here an
important epoch in the history of religion — the emergence of a
spiritual, as distinct from a national, religious society; Isaiah,
unlike Amos and Hosea, is not a voice crying unheeded; his
distinction lies less in a doctrine of the remnant than in the
practical step of creating the remnant in which he believed.
16. {I will) tie up . , . seaf\ the verbal forms are ambiguous
(see phil. n.) : they may be assertive, in which case Ki. correctly
expresses the nuance — nothing remains for me but to tie up,
etc. ; or they may be imperative, tie up. V.^'^ favours the former
view. If the words were a command, Yahweh would be the
speaker ; my disciples (^ ; ffiCS otherwise) would then mean
" those taught by my prophet," i.e. Isaiah's disciples ; and this
meaning would even more directly attach to the words on the
other view. To the sealing of documents there are several
allusions in the OT: see 29^1, Jer 32i<^^-, i K 21^, Dn 12*.
The Jewish Aramaic papyri of Assouan (5th cent. b.c.) were
found tied with string and sealed : see illustrations on the title
page of Cowley and Sayce's edition. — The testimony . , . the
instruction] the two terms cover the contents of a single
document which is both tied up and sealed. The testimony
(miyn, v.^*, Ru 4^t in a different sense) more particularly refers
to such sides of Isaiah's public utterances as his assertions that
Ephraim and Syria would do Judah no harm, but would be
speedily destroyed : cp. the attesting of the name Maher-shalal-
hash-baz in 8^'* : the teaching (min, i^® n.) is more particularly
his insistence on the need for quiet confidence and faith in
Yahweh. — In my disciples] the preposition (3), read differently by
ffi, is difficult, and has called forth many interpretations: (i)
deposited in the custody off* but this would probably have
required n^ ^N or n^D, and in any case why should Isaiah
deliver his teaching to his disciples in a sealed book which they
* ?^i.. Dr. {Isaiah: his Lift and Times^ p. 35), Che. {SBOT).
156 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
could not read (cp. 29^^)? (2) with* i.e, having my disciples pre-
sent ; cp. Di., " in the presence of and witnessed by " ; but this
also is pointless and strains the meaning of 3; (3) by means of
(Ew.), which would rather require ^"3. Least objection seems
to beset an interpretation which goes back to Rashi, who equates
3 with nS hVi and has been developed by Del., Du., Marti. This
interpretation gives 3 its common force in (of place) ; the
question (cp. Di.) is whether it sufficiently accounts for the
nature of the figure, for it makes the tying and sealing of the
law figurative ; Isaiah on this view determines to place his
teaching in the hearts of his disciples and to make of them
"living oracles": cp. Jeremiah's "law written upon the heart"
(Jer 31^^), and St. Paul's figure, "Ye are an epistle of Christ . . .
written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God " (2 Co
3^). — 17. Isaiah will rest firm in his belief in Yahweh, though
troubled for his people who have caused Yahweh to hide his face,
i.e. withdraw His favour, from them, and have thereby exposed
themselves to destruction. — 18. Isaiah's children are signs and
portents in virtue of their names ; he himself as the prophet and
representative of Yahweh. Whether Isaiah made his own name
Yahweh hath saved (i^ n.) a text on which to base his doctrine
that Yahweh was the only true ground of confidence, we do not
know. In any case he is scarcely thinking merely of his name
here. — Yahweh of Hosts who dwelleth in Mt. ^ion"] the last clause
need not be omitted as the addition of a late scribe to whom it
was a standing epithet of Yahweh ; it is a natural expression of
personal experience. Isaiah closes his memoir with words which
recall the great experience recorded at the outset (ch. 6).
l6. As the equivalent or substitute for the words which in |^ lie between
naSai at the end of v.^° and 'n'am at the beginning of v.^'^, <& has dvdpcoiroi iu
d(r<f>a\eig.. Tdre ^avepol iffovrai ol atppayi^biicvoi rbv vofiov rod fiTj ixadeXv koL
ipei. That the translators read (and read wrongly) [']nD'?3 nmn Dinn as Di)h
iD^D min is clear : how they read the rest is very doubtful. Neither C nor
Si recognises any reference to disciples — Dinn . . . nis] the scriptio plena of
the 2nd word is not ancient ; cp. ffi. The present orthography is probably
due to interpreters who read the verbs as infinitives absolute Dhij nx, and
inserted the 1 to distinguish the originally long vowel of the inf. abs. from
the merely tone-long vowel of inf. cstr. and imperative (G-K. 67«). Cp.
the usual (though not invariable) orthography of the strong vb. in f^ —
inf. cstr. Vap, but inf. abs. *?iop (G-K. 4Sa). For ns as the inf. abs. instead
* Dr. in BDB 89*.
VIII. i6-i8, 19-23 157
of n*)y, cp. 3^, Nu 23^8 ; Sfc>, Ru 2^* : for the syntax, G-K. ii3<5/5 ; apart from
aSc and the authors of the scriptio plena^ early interpreters took the forms as
imperatives ; so C (deriving mx from 1:^3), 5 {plurals), U. The sequence of
'noni, v.", is normal (Dr. § 113, p. 126) if the vbs. be inf. abs.: cp. especially
Jer 7"' — The exact process implied by ms is to tie up rather than to bind
together \ so the n"n^ is the pouch (i S 2^) ox purse (Gn 42**) which is closed
by having string tied round its mouth.
VIII. 19-23. — Three Fragments.
These are {a) a warning against necromancy and magic,
w.^^'^' ; ip) a picture of some person, or people, starved and
encompassed by darkness, vv.^^^- and probably the last words of
v.*^ ; {c) a promise of a better day for Galilee, v.^s.
Of these fragments, {a) and {c) are prose ; {b) consists of
distichs of balanced (3 : 3 or 2 : 2) and parallel lines.
This difference of style at once suggests, as Du. has clearly
perceived, that w.^^^^s are not all of a piece. And this is still
more strongly suggested by the inability of interpreters, who
assume their unity, to establish a probable as distinct from an
ingenious connection between the verses themselves, or between
the verses and what precedes or follows them. Note provision-
ally that vv.^^'^8 do not supply any natural explanation of the
subject in they say^ v.^®, or the pronoun you ; in v.^i through it
refers to nothing in vv.^^^*, nor does the singular pronoun
throughout the last clause of v.^® and v^P^ find any satisfactory
explanation in w.^^*
The verses are in several respects ambiguous, and probably
contain more than one corruption. Under the circumstances it
cannot be expected that the Isaianic authorship or the date of
any or all of them can be either maintained or denied with
certainty. It is inconclusive to say, for example, that vv.^®'' are
too didactic for Isaiah.
19 f. A warning against necromancy and magic. —
Such a warning would have been timely at most periods of
Hebrew history ; see Dt iS^-i^, i S 28, Lv 198I, 2 K 216, Is 65*.
— When they say] the subj. is indef. (G-K. 144/) ; it is not
resumptive of a plural in vv.^^"^^, since, for various reasons, the
several plurals in those verses are obviously unsuitable. — C/nto
you] it is improbable that this belongs to S^^-ie . \f jt did it would
naturally have stood de/ore vv.^^"^^. The n^n^ behold^ of v?^ does
158 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
not suggest you (Di.). The persons addressed may be th
disciples of the person who is speaking, and this may be Isaiah.
How far the invitation to necromancy extends and where the
rejection of the. invitation begins is uncertain (see phil. n.). The
chief views that have been taken have been these : (i) When they
say unto you^ " Consult the ghosts and the familiar spirits that chirp
and that murmur" (Ye shall say unto them,) *^ Should not a
people consult its god? on behalf of the living (should they consult)
the dead ? " This may represent substantially the meaning of the
original text, but as the text now runs it is open to serious
objections : (a) the first assumed ellipsis is very harsh and but very
partially paralleled by Ps 8*^- ; (d) the second ellipsis is question-
able in that it carries forward the influence of the interrogative
part of the particle (wn) without the negative — should they not
consult the dead would be the natural way of supplying the
ellipsis. (2) The other view, which admits of many variations,
regards the speech as extending to the end of v.^^ and the reply
to it as beginning with v.2<>, — When they say unto you^ " Consult
the ghosts and the familiar spirits that chirp and that mutter.
Should not a people consult its gods ? on behalf of the living {should
they not consult) the dead?" ^o p^ay, but to the law and to the
testimony — unless they speak according to this word (viz. " to the
law and the testimony "). In brief, Do not consult ghosts, but
the scriptures, or, according to another interpretation, the
prophetic teaching. On the whole, the argumentative " should
not a people," etc., seems improbable in the invitation ; and yet
these sentences probably were argumentative in their original
form. — The ghosts and the familiar spirits'] the terms (ni)3K and
(D)^3yi^ together as frequently, Lv 19^1 20^- 27, i S 283- ^ 2 K 21*
( = 2 Ch 33^) 232*, Is 19^. The distinction between them seems
to be that a person who divined by the nUK claimed to have power
to summon any ghost (i S 28^^), whereas the person who divined
by a ^3yn^ consulted his own particular or familiar spirit (Ac i6^%
which was at his beck or call ; see Dr. on Dt 1 8". The dead at the
end of the v. covers both sets of spirits, and on the 2nd interpreta-
tion noted above so also does Vnij^, its gods ; cp. the use of D^n7K,
god, for the manes of Samuel in i S 28^3. — That chirp and that
murmur] for the squeaking and gibbering of the spirits, cp. 29* n. ;
to chirp (si^BV), used of the thin notes of birds, see lo^*; and
murmur (Hin) of doves, see 38^* 59". — 20. According to one way
VIII. 19, 20 159
of regarding this v., it completes the sentence begun in v.^® : see
on v.^^. According to another, it is complete in itself: when
things have grown desperate and a man is without hope, he will,
but too late, penitently exclaim, To the Law and the Tesiimony,
i.e. the Scriptures (Du.). Men will at last seek for the word of
Yahweh and not find it (cp. Ezk 72^, Am 8"^- : and see Che.
Introd. p. 42). Most improbable of all is the view that v.*® is a
protasis of which v.*^ is the apodosis — improbable in itself, and
condemned too by the fact that v. 20 is prose and v.^i poetry.
It is impossible to interpret the v. satisfactorily : probably the
last clause is not the original continuation of the first part. — To
the Law and to the Testimony^ the same terms in inverse order
occur in v.^^ of Isaiah's teaching. If w.^^'^s are not the con-
tinuation of vv.^'^*, the terms may not have the same meaning as
in v.^^. If V.20 is late, Torah^ Law, may mean written law, the
Scriptures, and miyn, Testimony ^ like nny in Ps 19®, may be
a synonym of Torah in this sense. — If they speak not] possible
also is surely they shall speak : see phil. n. But in either case
this clause is very awkward if joined with the next : examples of
the improbable sentences thus produced are : if they speak not
thuSy he (note change of number) shall have no dawning^ or
surely they shall speak thus who (lit. he who) has no dawning. It
is more probable that the last three or four words (from ISTK or
I^N) belong to the poem of which another and larger fragment is
contained in v. 21^. — For whom there is no dawn] whose state is
desperate, because no morning will ever break on his present
night of distress; cp. 21"'* (n.) 58^ Ps 30^
tm" vn^K Sk oy-KiVn] commentators assign no reason for the emphatic
position of the subj. oy. Not improbably «nT goes with the following words,
and vn^K Vk oy niS.t is a corrupt fragment ; the corruption in this case is the
cause of the ambiguity of the v. (see above). It is one reason against Ruben's
elaborate reconstruction of vv.*''^ that he allows this difficulty to remain. —
'i3i D"nr» nya] ffi prefixes rl iK^rirovaiv, supplying, like modern translators,
something where something, though not obviously this, is needed in the
present probably corrupt text : see last n. — 20. ©is paraphrastic, but read
nnr for nnc. — nne' -h yn iifK nm nana itdk' vh dk] the best proof that these
words were not originally connected is the mere statement of the devices
which have been resorted to in order to construe them, (i) iV has been
explained as a sing, distributing the pi. in itdk', in support of which 2^ 5^
(themselves probably corrupt) have been cited (Kon. 348^). Du. reads ton'.
Grammatically the most straightforward course is to make nai the antecedent
of \h ((!&, Ruben) ; but exegetically this is improbable. (2) The relation of the
i6o
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
two parts of the sentence has been variously, but always' unsatisfactorily,
explained, (a) If they speak not thus^ {surely) he shall have no dawning', cp.
RV. But (BDB 84a) there is a complete absence of evidence that ick was
ever used (like 1) as the simple introducer of the apodosis (Ges., cp. Kon.
4I5«), or, like O, as an affirmative, {b) Surely they will speak thus ^ when he
has no dawning \ this translation might pass if when were temporal, but
usage only admits of its being conditional (cp. e.g. Dt 11^, Jos 4*'), on con-
dition that ; and this sense is incompatible with the tenor of the passage, for if
it is a unity, the writer regards calamity as a certainty, (r) Surely they will
speak thus who (really he who) have no dawning 'y but nan and not the subj. of
TTDN', both on account of its neighbourhood to nt^x and agreement in number
with 1^, is the natural antecedent to "w^. It is, no doubt, tempting in view of
Jer 8^' to take '\vx) in the sense of witchcraft ^ counter-spell (cp. 47^^ n.), and
render, {d) This word against which there is no counter-spell. But Ruben,
who has revived the suggestion, is compelled to resort to violent textual
correction to make the meaning harmonise with the context : he reads udk'
1313 for nana noN', and places D'non "^k D"nn nya after D'ayn*. Those who
infer that the real cause of these difficulties lies in the fact that nni? iV px nrK
and 'i3i TON' kS'DK belonged originally to different contexts, generally consider
that nnB' i"? J'K ntrx formed a fragment of the poem to which vv.^'* belonged :
Cond. thinks they form the direct continuation of 5^.
21, 22. The poetic fragment which appears to begin in
the middle of a distich ; the last words of v. 20, if they belonged
to the poem, are scarcely the first lines of the distich of which
V.21* is the second, for the lines would not be parallel, nor would
the last clause of v.^o contain the antecedent of na, through
it. The fragment appears to picture a man — whether Jew or
Ephraimite or even foreigner, cannot, of course, be determined —
passing through a country, probably his own (? in search of food,
cp. I K 18^*^, Am 48 8^^^*), distressed and famishing ; angry at his
plight, he curses his king and his God, from whom he can gain
no help ; whether he looks up or down there is no ray of light
to be seen : he is surrounded by impenetrable gloom.
In the following translation, to heaven (v.2i<*) and beneath
(v.22a) are taken from ^. The distich is then 3 : 3, which appears
to have been the rhythm of the poem.
21 And he shall pass through it hard pressed and hungry ;
And being hungry he will become enraged.
And curse his king and his God.
And he will turn (his eyes) * to heaven ' above,
22 And he will look to the earth ' beneath ' ;
And behold distress and darkness.
Thick impenetrable (?) gloom.
VIII. 21-23 i6i
21. And curse his king] Finding no help from king and God,
from whom he might have expected it (cp. 2 K G"^*^^-)^ and
smarting under his grievances, the man grows reckless and
commits the mortal (i K 21^*^, Lv 24"^*, cp. Ex 2227(28)) offence
of cursing king and God. Cp. Rev i6^\ "And they blasphemed
the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores." —
Elsewhere the obj. of hh^ is in the ace, and in i S 1 7*^ 2 K 2^^
3, which introduces both y270 and Vni>K here, is used of the person
in whose name the curse is pronounced. We might therefore
render curse by his king and by his god ; but this would leave the
object cursed unnamed ; and, seeing that the prep, is repeated, it
would give us an altogether unusual case of cursing in the name
of a king. — His God] possible also is the rendering his gods
{vP n.) : then cp. 220. But cp. i K 2 i^o- ^^.— Thick impenetrable (?)
gloom] this translation merely represents what was, as suggested
by the previous line, the general sense of this one. The text of
1^ is most questionable, and (K is probably paraphrastic. The
attempt to gain a transition from the gloom of v. 21^- to the
bright hopes of v.^ and 9^*^ by rendering and thick darkness
shall be driven away : 23 for there shall be no gloom to her
that was in anguish (RVmarg.), involves a number of improb-
abilities, disregards the parallelism and rhythm of the poem,
and assumes a transition from the poetic fragment ta the prose
of V.28.
23 (9^). Apart from the opening sentence (see last n.), this v.
is a prose note explaining that the darkened land of the poetical
fragment (82i'-), to wit, the northern and north-eastern territory
of Israel (cp. Zee 10^^, Mic 7^*) will be compensated for its
former distress by a corresponding glory (9^^^ (2-7)). If either
32if. or ^-^ is not the work of Isaiah, neither is this note; if
both are, this note may have been added by him when he
combined two poems of different periods. In this case he looks
back on the humiliation of Naphtali^ which took place in 734 b.c.
as long past ; it belongs to ihQ former time. — The land of Zebulon
and the land of Naphtalt] northern and north-eastern Palestine;
cp. Ps 6828 (27)^ Naphtali is explicitly mentioned in 2 K 152*.
The terms in the antithetical clause are all direct objects — he
hath made glorious the way of the sea^ the land beyond Jordan^
Galilee of the nations. These terms are more extensive than
those in the previous clause, for they include the country East of
VOL. I. — II
l62 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Jordan ( = Gilead, 2 K 15^^). Cp. EBL 1629. — The way of the
sea] according to Jer., Rashi, a/., the sea meant is the Lake of
Galilee (cp. Dt 33^^). More frequently D\T means the Medi-
terranean ; and so here the way of {i.e. leading to : cp. On 32*)
the sea probably is, like the ' Via Maris ' of the Crusaders, the
caravan route which ran from Damascus to the Mediterranean
sea at Acre. — The land beyond Jordan] pTn nay, as frequently
of the country E. of Jordan (BDB 719). — The Galil of the
nations] cp. Jos 1 2^3, " the nations of the Galil," if as against
f^ (**of Gilgal") this reading of ffir^ be correct; also raXtAata
dA.Xo<^v\a)v, I Mac 5^5 ; elsewhere in OT the * Galil,' hhlT\ (Jos
2o7 2i32, I K 9I1 I ch 66it) or 7h'^\r\ (2 K 1529), is undefined.
The term means circuit, but is always used specifically of a
district in Northern Palestine; cp. the different specific refer-
ence of naan, "The Round" (Gn 19"). But the district
covered by the term was not always, nor need it be here, as
extensive as the later Galilee : Ges. suggested that at one time
it defined a relatively small district round Kedesh (Jos 20^
2i82=i Ch 6«i, To r2, I Mac ii^s): in i K 1529 it appears
less extensive than Naphtali, which it subsequently included :
see, further, EBi,, s.v. Galilee. The definition given here and
in I Mac 5^^ (cp. Jos 1223 ffi^) reflects the mixed population
which was at all periods more or less characteristic of this
northern territory.
21. ayn ntrpa nn najn] (5 koI ^?« i<t! i/juii aKXrjpd, \iix6s = nvp dd3 najn
ajn, which is obviously corrupt. ^ is quite possible, since the absence of an
antecedent to na may be due to these words being the beginning of a
fr^ment. — nVyD*?] (& els rhv oiipavhv &vu>. — 22. pK ^ni] (& koI els t^v yrjp
koIto). — mJD n"?£3Ni npis ^lyo] signs of corruption here are : (i) these four words
overbalance, or if 'd h'^ski be separated (Du., Cond.) then np^ fjiyn is too
short for, the parallel line n^vm msf nam ; (2) however construed, mjD mSbki
destroys the parallelism with the first line ; (3) for mao, fflr read niK-ip ; (4)
npi}i is detached from ms with which it is coupled in 30^, Pr i^, cp. mj< or
npixDi, Zeph i^° ; (5) the difficulty of construing mjD nV»5K. The conclusions
that appear probable are: (i) one word between miD . . . njni is superfluous:
(2) mjD is a corruption of some qualification of n'?SN, cp. Am ^^ nj3 k^) ^sk
*.S. Possibly npij£ f]ii;D is a misplaced corruption of npi!fD (Zeph i^^), and just
possibly ffi's hkid is correct — a poetic breviloquence to express what Ex icP^'
expresses more fully in prose, vnx hk r'K i«t vh , , . nSstt '\vn '.Ti. Then
we may restore
npixDi m:« njm
.nNTD n'?BN1 HDJ^n
I
VIII: 21-23 i63
nam] Mic 3« (% not MT), Gn 15" (JE?), Ps 18" (not 2 S 22") 82» 139" ;
pi. Is 50*" t. — T^d] the existence of a root »)iy, /o ^ <&r/t, is well secured ;
but this form is doubtful, for (i) there also exist from the same root as nouns
meaning darkness ns'y and noiyn ; (2) masc. nouns of the form maktHl from
i'V roots are exceedingly rare (St. 275a), while, if against MT we treat
»)iyD as a form like Dipc, it would more probably mean place of darkness,
especially in view of the existence of nD'y, nsiyn. The term is perhaps due to
an early corruption (see above). — mjD hSbki] The rendering and into darkness
he is driven^ or banished (cp. Jer 23^^), is the only one that continues or
completes the thought of the distich ; but n^5t| for nSsK Sk is exceedingly harsh
(this might be partially met by pointing n^ek with he locative), the suppression
ofthenewand different subj. is awkward, and the clause is somewhat of a
hysteron-proteron, for the man is depicted as already encompassed by darkness.
The alternative rendering, and darkness is driven away, banished, may be
justified grammatically, for n'"*£3N (fern.) might be the obj., not the subj., of the
masc. pass. part. (17^ n., Ps 87^) ; but it is very improbable : m3 is not a suit-
able word for the dispersal of darkness ; a fresh synonym for darkness, if the
thought of the preceding words is continued, would be suitable, but quite the
reverse if the sentence is a strong antithesis. As part of the same distich, too,
the clause, had it this meaning, would be intolerable. That these two obscure
and ambiguous words are ** the turning point to which v. ^-9' attaches
itself" (Di.) is anything but " natural. "—23. rh pyiD "wnh f]yiD mS 'a] the
attempt is made by those who treat 8^'-9* as a unity and as free from
corruption, to make this the reason for the last clause of v.'^^ (second transla-
tion) \h\xs—for {there shall) not {be) gloom {to the land) to which there {was)
distress ; but again the change of words (from nVsK to »]yiD, from ^yiD to pJfiD)
is most improbable, and the change of tense which is all-important is in no
way indicated in the text. At least more probable than this is Du.'s
suggestion that the sentence is a gloss on fjiyo in v.^, explaining that that
word is used metaphorically : for is not »]yiD used (metaphorically) of a person
who is said to be in distress ? — nya] at the former time, 3 of point of time :
BDB 453^. — pB'Nin nys] the fern, n being regarded as radical was treated by
some writers from the time of Ezek. (7'* ^^) onwards as masc. : cp. Kon. iii.
251/. — 1^33.1 . . . Vpn] are antithetical — literally, to make light and to make
heavy, and then in accordance with common metaphorical usage to render
inglorious and to render glorious : cp. the antithesis of the Niphals of the
two vbs. in 2 S 6^^. The subj. in each case is perhaps best treated as
undefined (G-K. 144^^); others consider it to be Yahweh unnamed, "after
the well-known later custom" (Du.). Jewish commentators {e.g. Rashi)
make Tiglath-pileser subj, of h^r\ and Sennacherib of T33n, with, of course,
a very different and an illegitimate interpretation of the whole sentence.
T33n is proph. pf. — nxnn] pK + old ace. ending ; it is by accident rather than
design that the noun actually is in the ace. here : G-K. 90. — In view of the
absence of the n in the next sentence it is hardly likely that nsnN is ace. of
direction — he brought shame towards the latid . . . he brought honour towards
the way (Du., Marti). — jnnK.Ti] ace. temporis (G-K. 118/), and in the latter
(time).
164
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
i
IX. 1-6 (2-7). — The glorious Future of YahweKs now
enslaved People,
The poem consists of distichs, except perhaps in the last four lines. The
lines of the distichs balance one another, except perhaps in vv.^- ''• *"• ^ ; the
last line also is longer than the three which precede. These irregularities may
possibly be due to corruption, but independent signs of this are slight.
Although the lines within the several distichs balance one another, the length
of line in different distichs varies from clearly 2 in vv.^ **• ^* •* to clearly 3
in v.^, and 4 in ^' *. In v." some (Du., cp. Lowth) make ^ rhythmically
equivalent to ^' ^ and divide ^' *• '• ^' ^ at Wonderful Counsellor into two
rhythmically equal halves, the whole being rhythmically equivalent to ^- •*.
Certainly *• '• *• ** might easily be read as a single distich 4 : 4 instead of two
distichs 2:2; but in any case it is probable that the significance of the name
was heightened by being thrown into an independent distich.
Parallelism of lines is prominent : in v.^, the parallelism extends over the
entire distichs, though a subordinate parallelism of antithesis marks the lines
within each distich.
1 The people that were walking in darkness
Have seen a great light;
They that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death,
Light hath shone upon them.
2 Thou hast multiplied * the rejoicing,*
Thou hast made great the joy ;
They have joyed before thee as men joy at harvest,
As they rejoice when they divide the spoil.
8 For the yoke of his burden,
And the * bars' about his shoulder,
The stick of his driver
Hast thou shattered as in the day of Midian.
* For every shoe worn in tumult (of battle) (?),
And (every) garment * stained' (?) with blood,
Shall be for burning,
For fuel of the fire.
5 For a child has been born to us,
A son has been given to us ;
And dominion is upon his shoulder ;
And his name has been called —
IX. 1-6 i6s
Wonderful Counsellor,
Mighty God,
A Father for ever,
Prince of Peace.
• Great is the dominion,
And endless is the peace.
Upon the throne of David,
And throughout his dominion;
To establish it and to support it
In justice and righteousness —
From henceforth and for ever,
The jealousy of Yahweh of Hosts will do this.
Light now shines on the people that have been (long) in
darkness (v.^), and they rejoice before Yahweh with great joy
(v.^). For (i) Yahweh has delivered the people from the yoke
of a foreign oppressor (v. 8) ; (2) He has also made an end of
war (v.^) ; moreover, (3) a child has been born, who, as a native
ruler in contrast to the (foreign) oppressor of v.*, will exercise
dominion, and is marked out as exceptional by the name which
he receives, v.*. He will rule justly and righteously from the
throne of David over a vast dominion undisturbed to its furthest
bound by any breach of peace ; this righteous government by the
will and act of Yahweh is to be endless (v.*).
Except in vv.** ® the tenses used throughout the poem are
perfects and imperfects with waw conversive, i.e. tenses naturally
used in historical narrative. But the situation described in
vv.i-8' 6 in no way corresponds to any known circumstances, and
the name in v.** has no appearance of being one borne by an
actual person. It has therefore been widely and correctly held
that the poem is, at least in part, prophetic.
It is, of course, possible that the perfects are in part prophetic,
in part historical ; if this were actually so, the question would
arise, how much is prophetic, how much historical? Has the
great deliverance from foreign oppression actually taken place ?
Has some birth awakened the poet*s hopes, but the actual
present not yet fulfilled them by bringing the child born to the
throne of David ? Many have held that the birth is historic, and
1 66 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
that the poet refers in particular to the birth of Hezekiah ; but
this view is now generally and rightly abandoned.
It is more probable that the poem is prophetic throughout in
all its direct statements — the light has not yet actually shone, the
people have not yet actually rejoiced, the child has not yet
actually been born ; all these things are past, not in reality, but
only in the hopeful vision of the poet. The circumstances under
which the poem was written can only, but may probably, be
detected in the implicit statements ; from these we may infer two
things : (i) the people were at the time in " darkness," i.e. distress ;
and (2) under a foreign yoke. On one interpretation of v.*, if
not also from v. 5, it would also follow that (3) the throne of
David was at the time vacant ; another interpretation would still
admit, but no longer require, such a situation (see note on v. 5).
If all we can infer are the two circumstances first mentioned,
the historical situation presupposed is obviously one that
occurred even in Isaiah's lifetime, for Judah felt the pressure
of Assyria and paid tribute; but it also frequently recurred
later, when the yoke of Babylon, Persia, the Ptolemies or the
Seleucids rested on the Jews.
The determination of the date and authorship of the poem
must therefore turn on other considerations ; but these, too, are
unfortunately less decisive than could be desired.
1. Language. — Cp. Cheyne, Introd. p. 44 ; Hackmann, p. 148. This
is indecisive. On the one hand, the only occurrences of S^fa (as distinct
from ^^p) are in v.* 10^ 14^, passages commonly, though not unanimously,
attributed to Isaiah ; on the other, nv, pei-petuity^ and niD^x, both frequent
later, occur in no passage certainly as early as the 81 h cent, (see phil. notes).
It is the idea rather than the word ^^i^ that is significant. For the rest, the
language is such that it might equally well, so far as we know, have been
employed in the 8th century or much later, though jiko, if loaned from
Aramaic rather than Assyrian (cp. v.* n.), would more easily be explained
by a date later than the 8th century.
2. It is urged that no echo of the passage is found in Jer., Ezek., Is 40-66.
This is correct, but inconclusive. It is, of course, at once explained if the
passage was written later than these writers ; but unless we place it as late as
the 2nd cent. B.C. (Kennett), why does it also find no echo in still later
writers, Zech., Hag., Mai., the Psalms? or should we possibly find echoes
of it in Ps 72 ? The connection with Is 1 1 does indeed seem probable, and
if that connection is due to unity of authorship, the exilic or post-exilic date
to which that passage is probably to be referred is the date also of this.
3. Ideas. — The conception of Yahweh's "zeal" (v.*) is probably enough
that which is characteristic of Ezekiel and of subsequent writers, yet <*TK3p may
IX. 1-6 16;
be so interpreted as not to be absolutely incompatible with Isaiah's thought
(see n. on v.*). Several writers (see especially Volz, Die vorexilische Jahwe-
prophetic^ pp. 3 and 6fF.) treat the reference to the Messianic king as in itself
conclusive proof of post-exilic origin ; this is unsafe. At the same time two
facts remain : ( i ) the Messianic king does figure in later writers ; (2) we lack
positive proof that the prophets of the 8th cent, were acquainted with the
idea, or, if acquainted with it, also tnade use of it. Marti rather overstates
the case when he says that the Messiah here is ** throughout a political figure
(Grosse) which has no direct significance for Religion " — at least the remark
would equally apply to the judges and counsellors to whom Isaiah looks
forward in i'-^. If Isaiah did look forward to a king in the future and had
wished to describe him, he must have described him much as he is here
described — righteous, just, mighty in defence of the weak (see notes on vv.*' •).
The ideal certainly has its national limitations : the king will be a Jew and yet
have a wide, a universal dominion, but no stress is laid on the servitude of
the nations to Israel. Certainly, too, the ideal falls below that of the ' ' servant
of Yahweh " ; but at the same time this ideal of the kingdom established in
righteousness and of the peace-loving, justice-securing king b anything but
ignoble.
The best complete vindication of Isaianic authorship would be to establish
a clear connection with some period of the prophet's activity ; but, unfortun-
ately, those who agree in rejecting the view that the passage is post- Isaianic,
differ as to the period of Isaiah's activity to which it belongs. It must
suffice to refer to two or three theories of date.
Kit. argues that the passage fits into the range of ideas found in chs. 6-8
and other passages of the period to which these chapters belong. Isaiah then
expected the conquest of the country and the city, and the overthrow of the
monarchy (2*^* 3^** 5*"') ; but also that a remnant would survive (7' 6'^) ;
from the remnant would arise a deliverer, Immanuel, representative of the
new generation, who would grow up in affliction. Judah must drink the cup
of affliction at the hand of Assyria {f^- ^^i'^«'^«-). Then the hope
represented in Immanuel is realised, 8^^*'''. It increases, 8^'', and reaches its
climax, p^"^' — Assyria must fall. The climax was not clearly perceived at first,
but may have been so after 722, when the section 8-9* may have been written
down. The sequence of thought and, perhaps, the original sequence of the
sections is— 8^2. m (20). 2if.^ Disaster ; 8^«-"- 20, Hope ; S^'- ^^^', Fulfilment.
This elaborate construction rests on details, such as the identification of
Immanuel and the prince of 9*, which, according to the view taken in this
commentary, are insecure, or definitely unsound. It certainly mitigates to
some extent the difficulties attached to the view that 9^** was the direct
sequence of ch. 7, and written at the time of the Syro-Ephraimitish war.
Would Isaiah have described the people as walking in darkness, because they
were threatened, in his own phrase, by two fagends of smoked out fire-brands ?
Du. holds that the "driver" of v.' must be Assyria, and the "soldier" of
v.* Sennacherib's army.
The Isaianic authorship seems to have been first questioned by Stade,
Gesch. i. 596, ii. 209 f., ZATW vi. 161 ; then by H. Hackmann, Die
Zukunftserwartung des Jesaia^ 130-136, 143 if. ; Cheyne, Introd. pp. 44 f. ;
1 68
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Marti, Comm. ; Volz, Die vorexilische Jahweprophetie^ pp. 57-60 ; R. H.
Kennett, yZ'^.S' vii. (1906), 321-342. Sta., Che., Hack, suggest a post-exilic
date not closely defined, Kennett, who treats the passage as historical^
refers it to about 140 B.C., when "the yoke of the heathen was taken away
from Israel" (i Mac 13*^), and Simon held a rejoicing "because a great
enemy was destroyed out of Israel " (i Mac 13''^). In addition to the general
objection to assuming a Maccabaean origin for any parts of the Book of Isaiah
(see Introd. §§ 26 f. ), this theory rests on several very questionable assumptions :
(i) that 8^ (9^) is part of the poem ; (2) that the name given to the prince
implies a warrior ; (3) that the boots of v.* must be boots of Greek soldiery ;
(4) that the child of v.*^ is not a child^ as suchy but the offspring given to
the nation, to wit, Simon. Marti with far more probability places the
prophecy between 540 and 440 B.C., roughly about 500, not far remote in
time from Haggai and Zechariah, both of whom expected a Messiah of the
Davidic house.
On the whole, if the passage was not written by Isaiah, it
may be best regarded as a lyrical counterpart of chs. 40-55,
though the work of an author with different ideals, written
towards the close of the Exile, when the people had long been
walking in the darkness of captivity, long dwelling in the land
of the shadow of death — Babylon. Like Ezekiel, the writer
was convinced that the jealousy of Yahweh must bring about
the restoration and exaltation of his people: like Haggai and
Zechariah, he looked for a Davidic Messiah ; unlike Ezekiel, he
gives to his prince a supreme place in the restored community ;
though, like the Deutero-Isaiah, he expects the restoration itself
to be the direct act of Yahweh without the mediation of the
Messiah : this is a possible, even a probable, but at the same
time not a certain theory of the origin of the poem. If it
should be correct, we have three great ideals represented in the
literature of the Exile — Ezekiel's, of the Holy Community
devoted to ritual and sanctified by the presence of God in
its midst ; the Deutero-Isaiah*s, of the Prophetic People preach-
ing true religion to the nations ; and this writer's, of the Righteous
Kingdom with its king righteously ruling from Jerusalem over an
unlimited empire.
I (2). The people] the entire people of Israel, descendants of
those who had constituted the kingdom of David (v.®); the subject
is not the same as in 8^3 (9I), nor as in S^i^- (note the consistent
use of sing, there and pi. here); it is rather the new subject
of an entirely independent poem. — Darkness . . . light] for these
figures of calamities of various kinds and prosperity or deliver-
IX. 1-3 1 69
ance from calamity respectively, cp. e.g. 588- ^^ 59* 60^, La 3^,
Job 1522^-. Darkness signifies, in particular, captivity. Cp.,
either for this last point or for the phrases used in this v., 42^
{}^n2 ^2^\ 49» ("iK'na -ib^n || onioN), Mic 7^- (ncna aK^s o
iiNi> ^3K*^'' ' . . 'h y\^ rm% Ps 107I0. u ^-,^55^ nio^ "itj'n ^2^)
[>T\T Dn^miDiDi moi^yi "iK'no DN^yi^ . . . bnai ^^V).—The land of
the shadow of death\ or, of gloom (see phil. n.) ; the phrase pK
niiD7V occurs here only ; but cp. " the land of darkness and the
shadow of death" (Job lo^^ cp. 38^'^), i.e. Sheol : this meaning
can scarcely be intended here ; what is meant is either the land
of Israel temporarily obscured by calamity, or Babylon, the
land of captivity. ST avoids both these applications by para-
phrase— " The people of the house of Israel who were walking
in Egypt as in darkness came forth to see a great light ; they
that dwelt in the shadow of death, light hath shone upon them."
2 (3). Thou hast multiplied the rejoicings etc.] the translation rests
on a very slight conjectural emendation ; see phil. n. J^ reads
thou hast multiplied the nation : thou hast not increased the joy^
which is obviously unsuitable ; the K®re (RV) is probably an early
conjectural emendation which restores sense at the expense of
style and without restoring the parallelism (see phil. n.). The
two figures which enforce the greatness of the joy both recur;
see Ps 4^ 126^ (joy in harvest), Ps 119^^2 (joy over spoil). It
no more follows that the poet expected the new era to open
after a victorious battle, than that he expected it to begin at
the end of harvest. — 3 (4). The great joy is on account of the
end of Israel's servitude. The people referred to in the pi. in
vv.i^* are here collectively represented by singular suffixes ; the
change is occasioned by the introduction of a figure (cp. i^^-
after i*). Israel is compared to an animal with a burdensome
yoke resting on its neck and compelled to work by its driver,
who uses his stick upon it. In the terms of the figure, Yahweh
(not the Messiah) brings Israel's servitude to an end by breaking
in pieces both the yoke and the driver's stick : burden and
blows are alike done away. The figure of the yoke is a favour-
ite one with Hebrew writers, and is used of the oppressive
government of native rulers (i K 12*- ^^•), of the hard treat-
ment by foreigners (Assyrians, 142^ lo^^, Jer 27^- "'^' ; cp. Dt 28^^)
of Israel in its own land, or in a land not theirs (Lv 26^^). —
The yoke of his burden^ the yoke that is his burden, his burden-
I/O COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
some yoke: cp. lo^'' 14^^ where yoke and burde?i stand
synonymous parallelism. The yoke (^V) is specifically the heavy
cross-beam that rested on the neck of the animal; through
holes in this passed wooden pegs or bars (nt30), which, being
tied below, enclosed the animal's neck; see the illustration in
PEF Qu. St., 1891, p. 113, reproduced in EBL 78. MT and
probably |^ (though cp. Nah i^^) means the rod (niSD) of his
shoulder, or neck, i.e. the rod with which his neck was beaten ;
but (i) this would anticipate the driver of the next distich, and
(2) the neck protected by the yoke was not the special recipient
of blows. — The stick of his driver'] it is unnecessary to follow
RV and introduce a new figure by rendering of his taskmaster :
for driver, cp. Job 39'^. Nor, in view of the reference to the
stick {p2^) for beating (cp. e.g. Ex 21^0, Pr 10^^), is the render-
ing oppressor (14* n.) suitable. — As in the day of Midian\ an
allusion to the ending of another foreign oppression (Jg 6-8).
With the phrase day of Midian, cp. " day of Jezreel," Hos 2^
(i"); "day of Egypt," Ezk 30^; "day of Jerusalem," Ps 1371
Why does the poet refer in particular to the deliverance from
Midian? Is it because the story told then, as it is read now
(Jg 7^), illustrated the prophetic doctrine that deliverance is
wrought not by the size and equipment of human armies, but
by Yahweh ? In any case the poet does not say that the " light "
will shine, the change of fortunes come, after a great battle. — 4 (5).
For\ this v. does not give the reason for v.^, but a further reason
for the joy of v.^; men will rejoice because the age of universal
and unbroken peace (2*) has begun. War is already abolished,
and everything that pertains to it, typically illustrated by the
soldier's dress, will be destroyed by fire. Cp. especially Ezk
399, also Is 2^ Hos 220(18), Zee 9I0, Ps 4610(9) 754(3). It is curious
that the writer selects the soldier's dress rather than the imple-
ments of war for destruction ; Che. {SBOT p. 89) reconstructs
the text on the basis of the references just given, so that shields,
bows, arrows, and quivers may be consumed by the flames
instead. — Every shoe worn in tumult {of battle)] the last part of
this translation in particular is uncertain ; pSDf is not battle
(AV), nor armour (RV), but foot-gear. It has been claimed
that the word means in particular the heavy military boot ; and
Ges. referred to Josephus' description {Bell. Jud. vi. i. 8) of the
" shoes all full of thick and sharp nails " of the Roman soldiers
IX. 4 171
in illustration of its character; but neither the Assyr. shiu nor
the Aram. WD, (JolcD, from either of which Heb. may have
borrowed the word, has any such specific sense ; N^D is used,
e.g., in 5r Ex 3^, Dt 25®, Jos 5^^ "ljo]rD (for which the Peshitta
prefers ]i]rr>Vo) in the Harklensian version of Mt 3^^ Lk 10* 1522.
Abimilki of Tyre in his letters to the king of Egypt describes him-
self as " the dust under the shoe {Sinu) of my lord the king (Tell
el-Amarna Tablets, 152*, and elsewhere). Yet though the word
pND is not specifically a heavy military boot, the writer would
probably have had such in mind if the following words really
mean " of him that is heavily booted " (Kennett), or " of him
that makes an earthquake as he treads " (cp. BDB under both
words); but both these renderings are very questionable, the
denominative vb. (jND) should, as in Assyr. and Aram., mean no
more than to draw on, to wear a shoe. If the text is right, which
is doubtful, worn in the tumult of battle is the safest rendering
of J^, which should be pointed |Np not [ND (MT). This gives
the best parallelism, adopts the most probable meaning of the
denominative, and for the rendering of tJ'V"' by tumult {of battle)
has the close, though not exact, parallel of Jer 10^2 ; cp. also
Is 29**. Elsewhere the noun I5>jn means a trembling or quaking^
an actual earthquake, or, by hyperbole, the shaking of the earth
attributed to war-chariots (Jer 47 8, Nah 3^). The poet then
has no special type of boot in mind; it is the fact that shoe
(|1t?D) and garment (n»DB^), of whatever nature, have been worn
in battle, that condemns them to the flames. In the golden
age of peace, war and all that pertains to war will be taboo,
and must, as things unclean, be destroyed. Consequently
that part of Kennett's ingenious argument* for the late date
of the poem, which rests on the conclusion that pND must refer
to the heavy nailed boots which were characteristic of the Syro-
Greek soldiery, falls to the ground. It remains noticeable,
however, that in Is 5^^ Isaiah calls the foot-gear of the
Assyrians 7M\ sandals. — Stained with blood] reading by con-
jecture n^Nip ; \07)y0y f^, rolled, or weltering, in blood, seems to
* fotimal of Theol. Studies, vii. 327-331 f., 338: criticised by C. F.
Burney, ib. xi. 438-441, to whom Kennett replies, ib. xii. 114 f. My own
note above stands as it was written before the appearance of Dr. Burney's
note.
172 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
say too much ; Amasa is fitly described as " weltering " (i?^3nD)
in his blood (2 S 20^2), but the garments to be consigned to
the flames are scarcely limited to those which had " weltered "
in blood ; enough that they had met the usual fate of soldiers'
garments, and had become blood-stained (cp. Is 63^). — 5 (6). The
third cause of the people's joy is the birth of a prince of their
own race \to us), who receives (at once) the dominion and power
over them that had been exercised in the days of darkness (v.^)
by an alien ruler (v.^), and who is (v.^) to extend his dominion
widely but peacefully. This child is Hezekiah according to
mediaeval Jewish interpreters (Rashi, Ki., Ibn Ezra), Simon the
Maccabee according to Kennett, the Messiah according to most
(cp. ST). The ideal standpoint of the poet seems to be (shortly)
after the birth of the prince, after he has been recognised as
prince of Israel, but before the wide extension of his kingdom
has begun. — Child . . . so?t\ placed first in their respective
sentences for emphasis; *TT is applicable to an infant as yet
unweaned (Gn 21^) as well as to older children. — To us] the
poet who has hitherto spoken of his people in the 3rd pers. here
associates himself with them. — And the dominion is upon his
shoulder] is this fact mentioned between the birth and the nam-
ing because the name was given after the prince had grown up
and earned it by his exploits (Du.)? or is the meaning that the
name is given as usual a few days after birth, and that the
child is "born in the purple" (Grotius), because, though the
house of David survived (v.^), it had at the time no reigning
prince (Marti)? or is the position of the clause without signifi-
cance? tXWO, dominion, appears to mean here the royal dignity,
in v.^t the royal authority; the entire phrase here refers to
entering on a reign rather than to the burden of governing;
it may possibly have originated in a practice of wearing a royal
robe on the shoulder: cp. 22^2. — His name has been called] cp.
i26 n. — The eight words of the name fall into four clauses, each
containing two words closely connected: less probable views
are that the first four (Jer.), or the first two (EV, Ges.), words
should be taken singly ; some Jewish interpreters distribute the
names among God and the child, e.g. " God who is marvellous
in counsel. Mighty God, Everlasting Father, gave him the name
Prince of Peace (Rashi, Ki. : cp. ST) ; but Ibn Ezra rightly
insisted that the whole eight words belonged to the child's
IX. 5 173
name. Luzzatto treated the names as a sentence, predicating
(like Immanuel, 7^* n.) something of God, and therefore imply-
ing nothing as to the child. Some of the names singly, and
even more in combination, are as applied to men unparalleled
in the OT, and on this account are regarded by Gressmann
(p. 280 ff.) as mythological and traditional : cp. also Rosenmiiller's
Scholia. — Wonderful Counsellor] Like God Himself (28^ 25^),
the Messiah will give counsel that will be exceptional, exceeding
what has hitherto been known or heard. — Mighty God] cp. lo^i;
"the great (and) the mighty God," Dt lo^^, Neh 9^2, Jer
32^8. The ambiguous Dnni ^ijfc5 of Ezk 32^1, the application
of D^IJ i'N to Nebuchadnezzar in Ezk 31I1, and the fact, if it be
such, that in the remaining three clauses of the name here the
words are cstr. and gen., scarcely justify a departure from the
obvious rendering mighty God in favour oi god of a hero, and still
less a whittling down of the meaning of 7K to hero, so that the
clause means no more than tnighty hero. The child is to be more
than mighty (fj^pn, Ibn Ezra), more than a mighty man ("lUa 5^65,
I S 14^2), more than a mighty king ("1133 I^D, Dn ii^) : he is to
be a mighty 7K, god. This attribution of divinity, implying that
the Messiah is to be a kind of demigod, is without clear analogy
in the OT, for Ps 45^ <^> is ambiguous. Not only i)N but "lUi has
been differently interpreted : "lua is often used of warriors, and
many understand it to refer here to the military success of the
Messiah. But if the writer had wished to summon up the
thought of one who gained renown in war before he became
prince of peace, he might better have chosen an unambiguous
term, such, for example, as nonte "IU3, mighty in battle (Ps 24®).
At all events lUJ is also used of might manifested in other
ways than those of war (cp. e.g. Gn 10^). As the lion is
mightiest of beasts because he quails before no other (Pr 30^®),
so Yahweh is mighty as one who cannot be browbeaten or
bribed into abandoning the defence and care of the helpless
and the poor(Dt 10^^). In Jer 32^^ the idea of Yahweh's might,
conveyed in the epithets "great, mighty," "terrible," is particular-
ised in what follows as greatness in counsel (nvy) and action, in
the signs wrought in Egypt, and in finding nothing beyond his
power (xi'D* IDO). Mighty is to be taken here with this wider
reference. Yahweh Himself will bring war to an end and so bring
in the Messianic age of peace : the Messiah endued with the
174
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Spirit of God, " a spirit of counsel and might " (nnnJI nvv nn),
will like the mighty God Himself fearlessly defend the rights
of the weak and poor, and, after judicial process, have the
violent and guilty disturbers of civic peace slain (ii^-^). — Father
forever] the benevolent guardian of His people so long as He and
they endure. For the cstr. and force of ly here, cp., on one
view of the construction there, iy m3J, a lady for ever, 47'', and
the phrase with the synonymous Dpiy? ub^V "l^y, a slave for ever,
Dt 15^7^ I S 2712^ Job 4o28. For ny predicated of the (Messianic ?)
king, see, e.g.^ Ps 21^-'^; in view of these and other references it
is unnecessary to take the phrase as equivalent to Eternal father
(cp. xhs^ ^'rh^ 4o28). For father used figuratively of a protector
or benefactor, see Job 29^^, Is 22^1. Two alternative interpreta-
tions. Eternal One, and Father^ i.e. acquirer or distributor, of
booty, are both open to the serious objection that they pre-
suppose an Arabic use of 2K, father, which has no parallel in
Hebrew, not even as has sometimes been assumed in proper
names Uke Abihud, Abihail ; see HPN p. 7 7 ff. — 6 (7). The zeal
of Yahweh will secure the endurance of the wide and peaceful
dominion of the new Davidic dynasty, will secure also that it is
both established and maintained in justice and righteousness.
— To support it in justice and righteousness] cp. 16^, and Pr 20^8
"his throne shall be supported in mercy (S righteousness)." —
The jealousy of Yahweh of Hosts will do this] the same phrase in
3732. The term nwp, used of passionate emotion in man {e.g.
Ca 8^), here refers to Yahweh's emotion : so, with other terms of
emotion, in 63^^ This jealousy, or ardour, or passion, of Yahweh,
which will not suffer Him to be deprived of His due, especially
of the proper regard for His power and honour, is frequently
referred to by Ezekiel and later writers ; it led to the punish-
ment by captivity of His people who had been disloyal to Him,
but it subsequently necessitated the restoration of Israel, lest the
nations should think Yahweh weak; cp. Ezk 3925-29 ^iso 5IS 16^^
2325 365ff.^ Is 42I3 5917, Zee i"f. 82f-, Jl 2^8^-, Nah i2. The phrase
and the idea expressed by it would be entirely in place if this
prophecy is exilic or post-exilic; and it would be difficult to
think it earlier, if the main thought is that the jealousy of Yahweh
will restore the Jewish monarchy. But if the main thought is
that Yahweh will establish and maintain a righteous government,
it may be merely a more passionate expression of Isaiah's ideal
IX. 6, 1-4 175
in i^. The attribution of nn^p, jealousy, to Yahweh would still
remain unique so far as Isaiah's extant writings are concerned.
Cp. Kiichler, Der Gedanke des Eifers Jahwes im AT^ in ZATW^
1908, pp. 42-52.
IX. I. iKi] (!I5 treats this as impv. with Dj/n vocative, renders njj by
impf. and reads D3''?y — scarcely real variants. On the text of the quotation
in Mt 4^", see Swete, OT in Greek, 396 f. — pKa '3^'] 5" n. — The clause is a
casus pendens, the cstr. being doubtless chosen for purposes both of rhythm
and emphasis: Dr. § 197. i. — niD^K] Am 5^ being probably later than the
8th cent., the earliest occurrences of mDS:« elsewhere are Jer 2^ 13" : it occurs
besides four times in Psalms (23^ 44^0 loy^*** ") and ten times in Job. The
traditional view (i^Cffi) that nioSsf is = n]ip + '?y, rather generally abandoned
for a time in favour of Ew.'s suggestion that it is =m + dSs, niopv, has perhaps
rightly been revived by No. {ZATIV, 1897, pp. 183 ff.); the root aUc',
Assyr. saldmu, is not otherwise represented in Hebrew. — njj] Kal as Job 18"
22^* ; Hiph. 13^'', 2 S 22^= Ps i2P\ ; but the noun occurs early, e.g. Am 5^ :
cp. Assyr. nag^, to shine. Possibly the writer intended the noun here, iik in
that case being 3rd pf. : note the order and cp. Pr 4^^; but (!I5 = MT. — 2.
nnocn nVun kS 'un n'mn] so K*tib : K^re reads *h for k*?, cp. the same
variants in Ps lOo", Job 13"; Sb Olii^, VL jm"? agree with the ]^«re, F,
Symm. with the K^tib. (& is paraphrastic and ambiguous. In favour of the
emendation S'jn {e.g. 16^'') or nV'jn (65^^ probably also 35^t)> "ote that lines
a. b thus show the parallelism nS'an, nnorn as c. d show iSu', inOB'. The
conjecture, now commonly accepted, is due to W. Selwyn, Horae Hebraicae,
Camb. 1848. For a defence of the K*re, see Del. ; but he fails to justify the
emphatic position given by it to i*? ; in the passages he cites (45^, Lv 7'-',
I S 2', Job 29^', Ps 7^* 139") 1^ is either really emphatic (so pre-eminently in
Lv 7'""), or textually questionable.— 3. 'i'?;|D] for "iSap ; G-K. 93^. For the
noun, see lo'" I4^t > the root was in use at all peiiods. — nnnn] 7^ n. —
4. pND] dir. X67. : see above. If Isaianic, the word is probably loaned from
Assyr. ; for D= Assyr. § in such loan words, cp. \\y^^ = Sarrukin ; pD = JfaX'««.
For the vowel change pKD = i<?«w, Haupt in SBOT compares rrm^tirlu,
]H^=fMu. — For B'i;n3 ]tiO pxo, ffi has aroXriv iinavvrjy/jiivrjv 86\(p, probably
following much the same text as f^, but perhaps reading ]}f\ for «?in. The
length of the line and the difficulty of finding a translation in all respects
beyond criticism create some suspicion of ^, but we are in no position to
emend, — nn'm] the waw introducing the direct pred. is uncommon, but not
unparalleled (Dr. § 123a) ; so also is the agreement with the immediately
preceding part (n'?D2') of the compound subj. (G-K. 146^ ; Kon. 349/), cp.
Jer 7^. The combination of the unusual together with the shortness of this
and the next line (yet cp. 2****), and the fact that r« n'?3KD in idea echoes
rather than balances r\tr\'eh nn'm, may reasonably raise the question whether
the text is sound at this point. — r\*r\v\ perhaps, in view of the parallel, that
which is bwnt ; see Numbers, p. 208. This meaning is also possible in Gn
11^ (C). — nSsND] the word is no indication of date ; it is true it occurs again
iy6 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
only in v.**, where the text is doubtful, and in the form n^so in 1X5^*;
but the root is one of the commonest at all periods, the noun form is paralleled
by mano, mano, npVno, mabo, all occurring in early literature, and the corre-
sponding forms occur in both Syr. and Arabic — |A\r}nKp ^i^. —
5. mB'Dn] v.*t. (& renders apx^J. ^ Ol 1 t>\o •, V in v.® principatus^ in
v.^ imperium, W Knmx, /aw, which is obviously wrong, and due to connect-
ing the word with no' (cp. Symm., Theod. i) iraideLa). MT n-i^-a presupposes a
meaning /<? rule for the root me', ^^Jm, of which there is no evidence. Point
rather n"jB^ or n"it?p, from "W, a prince, denom. ■nt?, to nde {e.g. Jg <f^). The
punctuation of MT can be traced as early as Jerome (MESRA) and perhaps
Aquila, who renders rh fiirpov, being deceived by the similar sound of the
Latin mensura (Lagarde, Sem. i. 15).
TOB'KnpM] either (i) Kal unpn (MT) with indef. subj. (Kon. iii. 324^), as
certainly in Gn 25^, and possibly in some of the apparent cases of naming
by the father (see Hastings, DB iii. 480''). This would be the common
idiom for naming a child at birth (see, e.g., 7^^ 8^). Since the important
matter here is the name, and the person who gives it unessential, the in-
definite idiom cannot be considered improbable ; less probable views of the
cstr. with the same punctuation is that God unnamed, or named in part of
the names that follow (C), is the subj. ; or (2) Niphal Nii5»i : this idiom
is used of names given in later life ; see Dt 25^^, Dn 10^, cp. Gn 35*''. —
I'yv N^£3] commonly explained on the analogy of onit KiiJ, a wild ass of a man,
DiK ^''Q^, fool of a man (c^. G-K. 128/; Kon. iii. 337^) as meaning literally
a wonder of a counsellor, or rather taking j^yv like mx as collect. , a wonder
among counsellors, most wonderful of counsellors. Possible also is it that nS*)
is the ace. prefixed (cp. 22^), giver of wonderful counsel. On the differing
traditions as to the punctuation kSs, k^s (the second being intended to mark
the status constructus), see Kon. ii. p. 66. — ly '3n] ny, booty, is an early word,
Gn 49^ ; but it is not intended here (see above), and consequently the pro-
posed substitution of hhv for uhv below (Neubauer, Margolis, cited by
Cheyne in SBOT) falls to the ground, ny, perpetuity, is predominantly, if
not exclusively, late ; no indisputable instance can be found earlier than the
Exile : frequent in the Psalms, it occurs also in such passages of doubtful age
as Am i", Mic 4^ Pr 12^^, Ex i^^. — 6. nmo'?] the final D in the middle of the
word (K^tib), which is corrected in the K^re, points to an early corruption
or ambiguity of the text. In the translation above Gratz's suggestion ( Gesch.
ii. I, p. 223) has been adopted, viz. that □*? is a dittograph of ^\v\ a
relatively late dittograph, for it presupposes the use of the final letters.
fflr at the end of ^ and beginning of ' has d^w 7Ap elp-^prjv eirl roi>s dpxopras
Kal ir/elav avrc^' fxeydXr} 17 dpx^ airrov : the overlined words seem to represent
a conflate text nm nnD*?, the first of these two words being wrongly read by
© Nana 'h (Cheyne in SBOT). The parallelism and independence of the
short two-accented lines is best preserved by reading nm. The word nano,
presupposed by the other reading, occurs again in 33^t' See, further, on the
text, Cheyne in SBOT; Lagarde, Semitica, i. 17. If the reading naTD^ be
retained, Gressmann's (p. 279) suggestion to read ivon (cp. 11*, Mai 2*,
IX. 7-X. 4, V. 26-29 177
Ps 45' 67') for mron is worth considering. — niK3x] possibly an addition, sec
2 K I9»> Knib (without) = Is 37** (with).
IX. 7 (8)-X. 4, V. 26-29.-7%^ Doom of Ephraim.
The five strophes of the following poem, even in the present text, are of
very nearly equal length : in the original poem each strophe probably con-
tained exactly 14 lines. The third strophe still contains this number, and so
do the second and the fourth ; but the genuineness of two, or four, lines of
the second, and the whole of the fourth, has been suspected. The first
strophe now contains 13 lines, but there are strong grounds for suspecting
that a line has fallen out after v.^W^ The fifth strophe contains 15 lines,
but one of these {^^) rests under suspicion as being a monostich.
The regular succession of distichs is broken in the present text by four
monostichs ; but one of these is (in \.^) probably due to the loss of its
parallel, and two others, <^^' ^^ <^*'' ^'^\ are probably two parts of a distich
which have been accidentally separated from one another (see Comm. ) : in
the following translation they are restored to fellowship. The remaining
monostich is 5^** ; it is probably intrusive, for the fifth strophe is at present
a line too long.
We may conclude that the poem originally contained four or five equal
strophes, and each strophe seven distichs.
The lines of the distichs are for the most part parallel in sense and
balanced. Of the 35 distichs, 19 are clearly 3:3; so, too, probably are
gi6a. b (omit unK), io2»- •* (read o-^jy for nDy "jy), ^- ^ (reading vSaSj for
vSi^ji), perhaps also lo**- •» (ynp-'p^?^) and <y^' 27* (Kn'-"??). There is at least
one distich 4 : 4, viz. 9' ; other probable, or possible, examples are 9^*^ ** ((ffi
4:4, |§ 5:4), 9^*"* •* (omit mn'), <^^- *» (omit makkeph in ns Vm). The
gloss in 9^* is also 4 : 4. The opening distich (9') is exceptionally 4 : 2,
and 9^° also may originally have been 4 : 2. On the other hand, ^' •* was
probably 3 : 3, and has been turned in transcription into 4:2. On ^ and
5*, see notes.
Note. — The prophetic past tenses of the original are retained in the
translation ; but the whole poem is a forecast of the future, not a survey of
the actual past : see below.
I.
f^ The Lord hath sent a word against Jacob,
And it shall fall upon Israel.
* And all the people shall recognise (it),
Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria.
[For they said . . .]
Proudly and greatly daring,
• " Bricks have fallen, but with hewn stone we will rebuild ;
Sycomores have been cut down, but with cedars will
we replace them."
VOL. I. — 12
178
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
10 And (so) Yahweh exalted (?) ' his ' adversaries against him,
And will spur on his enemies —
11 Syria on the East and the Philistines on the West,
And they devoured Israel with full mouth.
In spite of all this his anger turned not back,
But his hand is stretched out still.
2.
12 Yet the people returned not to him that smote them,
Nor inquired of Yahweh of Hosts ;
12 So he Yahweh cut off from Israel head and tail,
Palm-branch and reed in a single day.
^^ The elder and the person held in respect, that is " the head,"
And the prophet who delivers false oracles, that is "the tail."
^' And those who should have led this people aright led them astray,
And those who should have been led aright were swallowed up.
1^ Therefore the Lord will not rejoice over his young men,
Nor show compassion to his orphans and widows,
Because he is wholly profane and given to evil,
And every mouth is speaking impiety.
In spite of all this his anger turned not back,
But his hand is stretched out still.
1^ For unrighteousness burnt like a fire :
It (first) consumed thorns and briars,
And (then) it kindled the thickets of the forest,
And they twisted about in a (rising) column of smoke.
1^ Through the overflowing anger of Yahweh the land . Pj,^^4
And the people became like ' devourers ' of men ;
1^ They carved (slices) on the right hand and were hungry,
And they ate on the left hand and were not satisfied.
18^ None will show any pity to his brother,
i^^'But each shall devour' his 'neighbour's' flesh —
-0 Manasseh (devouring) Ephraim and Ephraim, Manasseh,
Together (will) they (be) against Judah.
In spite of all this his anger turned not back.
But his hand is stretched out still.
tqI Ah ! they that decree mischievous decrees,
And that, busily writing, write nought but trouble,
IX. lO-X. 4, V. 26-29 179
2 That they may turn aside the needy from judgment,
And make plunder of the right of the poor, a
That widows may become their spoil,
And that they may make a prey of orphans.
* What then will ye do in the day of visitation,
And at (the time of) the storm that cometh from afar?
And to whom will ye flee for help,
And whither will ye abandon your glory,
* 'To avoid' .crouching under (?) the prisoners,
And falling under the slain?
In spite of all this his anger turned not back,
But his hand is stretched out still.
5-
52s Then will he raise a signal for a * nation ' afar off,
And whistle for it from the end of the earth :
And, lo ! speedily, quickly will it come,
27 With none of it(s number) growing faint or stumbling ;
It slumbers not nor sleeps
The waistcloth about its loins has not been untied,
The thong of its sandals has not snapped;
•* Its arrows are sharpened.
And all its bows bent (ready);
Its horses' hoofs are like flint,
Its wheels are accounted like the whirlwind;
28 Its roaring is like that of a lioness.
And it will roar (?) like young lions :
And it will growl and seize the prey
And carry it off, with none to rescue.
The grounds for believing that 526-29 originally formed the
close of the poem in g'^-io* are these : (i) the refrain that marks
the close of the several strophes and, in consequence, immedi-
ately precedes the commencement of each strophe but the first
in 9^-10*, also immediately precedes 52«-29 . (2) the burden of
this refrain is that yet more of the divine chastisement is to
descend on Ephraim : admirably adapted, therefore, as it is for
the close of each of the earlier strophes, it is not adapted to
close the entire poem : consequently 10* is not the close of the
poem, and the final strophe of the original poem lacked the
refrain ; so in Am 4^-^2^ ^ poem which not improbably influenced
i8o
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Isaiah in the composition of his own, a four times repeated
refrain (mn^ D^53 '•ly Dn3K^ ^h)) was unsuitable to close the poem.
(3) At the close of a strophe almost, or (if we omit ^^"^^ as
intrusive) exactly, equal in length to the (second), third (and
fourth) strophes, and to what, as it would seem, was the original
length of the first strophe in 9''- 10*, occurs a suitable climax to
the whole poem — the utter destruction of the threatened people
of whom none escapes ; (4) not only the climax, but also the
general tenor of the 14 lines of 5^^"^^, form a suitable sequence
in thought to 9^-10* ; (5) the structure (a succession of distichs)
and the rhythm (mainly 3 : 3) of 526-29 jg the same as that of
9^-10*; (6) the conclusion of 9'^-io* is not in lo^^-, for this deals
with a totally different subject; nor (7) is the introduction to
^25-29 to be found in 51-2* (see notes thereon).
That 525-80^ in whole or in part, formed a part of the same poem as 9^-10*
has been very generally recognised. Ew. reconstructed thus : 5^ + 9' to 1 C
+ 5^*^» seeing in 9' a new start in a great speech which included 2^-5^ and
9^-10*. Giesebrecht introduced an important modification of this view by
insisting that 9' is the beginning of an altogether independent poem.
According to him, 9'"^° closed with 526-30 . jqI-s jg g. misplaced fragment to
which the refrain was added after it had become attached to 9'"^^ j 5^'^ is a
gloss. Di., Du., Hackmann, Che. {Inirod.), Marti closely follow Giesebrecht,
except that Du., Che., Marii find the close of the poem in 5^^ (not 5^) and
Du., Che. do not delete 10^"^; Di. and Du. consider 5^^' the fragment of
one or more lost strophes (on Judah, Di.), and Hackmann treats 10^ as an
original part of the poem. The contents (see below), the marked change of
rhythm in 5^, the length of the strophe, all point to 5^, not 5^", being the
real close of the poem. The arguments against 10^'^ are strong (see below),
but not absolutely conclusive. In addition to the commentaries, see especi-
ally Giesebrecht, Beitrdge (1890), 3-24; Hackmann, 54 ff. ; Cheyne, Introd.
24 f., 46 f.
Two different views have been widely held with regard to the
purpose and general character of the poem. According to one,
the entire poem is prophetic, predicting a succession of
calamities that are to fall on Israel;* according to the other,
it is for the most part an historical survey of past calamities
(9^-20), closing (5^^"^^) with the prediction of a yet more complete
calamity which is still to come.f
* Ges., Driver {Isaiah^ 37 f., LOT)y Du., Marti, Whitehouse, Gressmann
(p. 171).
t Ew., Giesebrecht, Di., Kue., Che. {Introd.), Kon. (369^, 368-^), Sta.
{ZATWf 1895, P- 138 f.), Skinner, F. Wilke {Jesaja und Assur, p. 25).
IX. 7-X. 4, V. 26-29 181
It is generally agreed that the tenses in 9'* ^ and s^*** have a future force,
and also that the perfects in the words spoken by the Ephraimites in 9" refer
to the past. But Sta. treats vv."* also as historic, and therefore points t^^ ((!K)
in v.^*, reads VflJ Sbji in v.'**, and points ^jn*! in v.^. It is, however, the force
of the tenses in g}'^'^ that is most disputed. If the section is a survey of the
past, perfects and imperfect consecutive tenses are normal and require no
explanation, but perfect consecutives and simple imperfects must be explained ;
whereas, if the section is predictive, it is the perfects and imperfect consecutives
alone that require explanation. The consonantal text distinguishes the impf.
consec. from the impf. with simple waw in one case only ('.ti, v.'") ; for the
rest we must be guided by the sense in determining whether the waw before
an impf. or a pf. is simple or consecutive.
The tenses used in 9^"-^ are 5 perfects {2V '2, wm ^\ n-)]}! ", onyj '*, lyar ")
in addition to 2V in the thrice repeated refrain, 9 impf. with waw (nam'",
iVdk'i", m3'i'3^ ViTi^*^, nsm", i33Nn'i", wi^^, nini', Sdk'i'^), 5 imperfects
(IDDD' ^", nov, onr ^*, iVon' ^^, i'^^n' ^^), and i pf. with waw (ny^1 '»).
If 910-20 jjg narrative, the most difficult imperfects to explain are those
in ^^ and ^^ Of 1D3D', Di. says that it expresses duration in the past ; but
mere continuance, in the sense of duration without progress y is never expressed
by the impf. (Dr. § 31). Giesebrecht treats it (apparently) as a ** picturesque "
impf. or, hazardously (cp. Dr. §§ 83-85, 170-173), as a case of the impf.
consec. separated from its waw ; Sta. substitutes the pf. ^ppp for the impf. of
^. On v.i', Di. says, "The Impff. . . . express the principle according to
which God always acts in such cases and so has also (v.^^) acted with them " ;
but this is surely a counsel of despair : the jrVy and the suffixes both render
it improbable : had the writer wished to express what Di. suggests, he would
rather have written something as follows: 'wi nots" vh cyn nina ^y mn»i.
Giesebrecht apparently would attribute the use of the impfF. here to the fact
that they describe circumstances lasting up to the present.
If 910-20 be prophetic, the difficulty of the perfects and imperfect consecutives
does not lie in any particular instance ; for it is a well-known prophetic usage
to employ either tense or both tenses in describing the future (Dr. §§ 14, 81 f.) ;
it lies rather in the multiplication of the instances in a short passage ; and even
this multiplication of narrative tenses can be paralleled ; see 9^"^ where we find
ten narrative tenses, and two only (nn'ni, v.*; njyyn, v.') that immediately
suggest the future ; cf., further, lo^"^^. But between 9^"' and 9^'2° Giesebrecht
draws a real distinction : in 9^"^ future events are described which will all fall
at pretty much the same time, but 910-20^ brings before us a chain of events as
they follow one on another. If predictive, 9^0-20 jg jj^ some respects a unique
example of the sustained use of the prophetic past in describing an unfolding
future. But apart from ^^'^^ 9^"^ (generally though not unanimously admitted
to be prophetic) would be a unique example of the sustained use of the
prophetic past ; it would scarcely be safe therefore to deny the prophetic
character of 9^''-*> ©n the ground that it is unique. Moreover, if 9'*"* with
the introductory lines clearly pointing forward would naturally suggest the
future to a reader, the refrain would mark a stage after which the reader may
naturally expect another future event.
In a further distinction which Giesebrecht seeks to draw, he is even less
1 82 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
successful : he says that in 9'"^ "the ideal" standpoint is clearly indicated in
the first verse. Allowing that this is so (and it would scarcely hold of 10^),
it is not to the point ; for the same is true of 9'"^^ It is indeed precisely
because in the solemn opening of the poem the poet carries us forward into
the future, that it is difficult to believe that the greater part of it is a mere
survey of the past. The first verb of the poem may be pf. of past fact
or prophetic pf. : it makes but little difference whether the poet represents
the divine decision as already taken or immediately to be taken ; the essential
point is that the action of the self-fulfilling word of God, according to |^ at
least, has not yet begun : the " word " has yet to fall (V331) into Israel, and then
disaster will happen and become apparent (9'^''' ^). After such an opening
we naturally expect to see not a panorama of the past, but of the future (cp.
the perfects in 14'"* after the opening in 14**) ; and the first scene in the
future as it unfolds itself before the prophet's eyes is given in 9^"* ^^ after he
has briefly indicated its cause in the self-confident temper of the people who
have not profited by calamities already past (^*'' ^). It is surely artificial in
the extreme to make the words, ** And Yahweh hath exalted his enemies over
him" (v.^''), explicative of "Bricks have fallen down" (in v.^ : so Kon.).
The impf. consec. is impressive and effective if it is the equivalent of a proph.
pf. (Dr. § 82) ; for in this case it represents the coming calamity " not merely
with the certainty of the prophetic pf. , but as flowing naturally out of^ being
an immediate consequence of" Israel's self-confident speech (^'•), just as the
future humiliation of man is prophetically conceived as the certain and
immediate sequence to the present custom of idolatry in 2^"'(n8''i . . . iinnc").
On this ground it is not advisable (with Du., Box) to turn the impf. consec.
(ails';!) into the impf. with simple waw (3a'8''i). In the parallel clause the
simple impf. alternates, as often (Dr. § 14), with the prophetic past.
If lo^'^ be an original part of the poem, which is doubtful, then, since the
tacit threat of v.^ obviously and admittedly refers to the future, the refrain in
one instance (10*) certainly comes after a strophe which has the future in
view.
7-1 1. Ephraim's pride to be humbled by the Philis-
tines and Syrians. — The opening lines announce that
Yahweh has determined the doom of the Northern kingdom;
this will now work itself out in such a way that the people
must recognise what is happening. The fifth line of the poem
(now lost) appears to have given the reason for this decisive
judgment; or to have suggested the difference between the
judgment yet to come, the significance of which men will be
compelled to see, and the past calamities which they have light-
heartedly minimised (v.^). In w.^^^-^i*-^ the first stage of the
coming judgment is then described; it will consist of devas-
tating attacks by external foes, the Syrians and the Philistines
being definitely named.
7, The word of God once sent forth (Ps 10720 14715. is)^
IX. 7-1 I 183
whether its purpose be the destruction or the well-being of men,
cannot return to God till it has wrought His purpose (Is 55^°'- ;
cp. 133^t5'N ifhj Am 1 3 etc.). Even the solemnly uttered word of
men, especially the blessing or the curse, was conceived as
acquiring after utterance an existence of its own independent of
the speaker: cp. Nu 22® n. This destructive word dispatched
by Yahweh will find its mark : it will /a// info Israel. Israel and
Jacob are synonymous, and here mean specifically the Northern
kingdom ; for a third synonym is (8) all the people ; and this phrase
in turn is unmistakably explained in the parallel line as
Ephraim, the leading tribe, and the inhabitants of Samaria^ the
capital, of the Northern kingdom. — All the people shall recognise
(//)] when the destructive word of Yahweh has reached its goal
and begun to work, the people will learn by actual experience of
its effects how overwhelming the coming calamity is to be : for
to know or to recognise^ cp. 5^^, Hos ^. — For they said . . .] the
Hebrew text is mutilated at this point (see phil. n.); RV "that
say in pride," etc., rests on a (tacitly) emended text. — Greatly
daring] lit. in greatness 0/ heart; but "the heart " was the seat
of courage, cp. 2 S 17^^, Ps 76^, Dn ii^s. A day of Yahweh is
coming that will abase pride (2'^^^'), and prove the insecurity of
all confidence which, instead of resting on Yahweh (7^), rests on
self (cp. Am 6^^), or any other human power (30^"^ 3^^'^)- — p.
These words, perhaps a popular proverb, reveal the self-reliant,
God-forgetful temper that makes the coming doom inevitable :
the people are confident that they can themselves much more
than make good the losses that they have suffered. Common
houses were made of bricks of sun-dried clay which easily fell to
pieces (Job 4^^) ; the houses of the wealthy of hezvn stone (Am
5^1). Sycomores were common, and stood to the highly-prized
cedars as stone to silver (i K lo^^). What are the losses of
which the Ephraimites make so light? Not, if the poem is
prophetic, those caused by the Assyrian invasion in 734-732,
but rather those due to Tiglath-pileser's exaction of tribute in
738, and (or perhaps even only*) those that resulted from the
anarchic period that followed the death of Jeroboam 11., c. 746
B.C. The entire situation suggested in this v. closely resembles
that described by Hosea (7^^-) : Hosea and Isaiah alike see the
gravity of what the people treat so lightly ; old age bringing with
*Di.
1 84 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
it the loss of the strength of youth has, as Hosea puts it, crept
on the nation unawares. The connection between Hosea and
Isaiah is even closer, amounting to the verbal dependence of
one on the other, if Hos 710 ('\r]^p2 i6) D3\t^K mn> i>K niJ' i6)
nj^T 7D3) be original, and not, as some suppose, a gloss. — Ift's
adversaries . . . his enemies'\ the singular pronoun refers to
Israel, the Northern kingdom, cp. vv.^^- ^^ The general terms
adversaries^ enemies^ are explained in v.^^ to be the Philistines
and Syria \ so the special follow and explain the general
terms in w.**- ^- ^^' ^oa. His adversaries is a conjectural, but
fairly certain, reading; J^ has suffered from the invasion of a
misleading gloss ; it reads the adversaries of Resin, king of Syria
(7I n.), which has been understood to mean the Assyrians ; but
this would be inconsistent with v.^^ Several Hebrew MSS read
princes of Resin, but this is either a transcriptional error (n^ for
nv) or a conjecture; see, further, phil. n. — II. If prophetic, the
meaning of this v. taken together with the preceding is clear :
Israel is to become the prey of foes who will fall on it from
all sides, East and West being specified, and Syria and the
Philistines being named as typical of neighbouring peoples from
whom, as having been frequently hostile in the past, hostility
might be expected. In this case the prophecy was probably
delivered before Ephraim and Syria became allies, i.e. before
c. 736 B.C. If the verses are a survey of recent history, they
refer to events of which we have no other knowledge ; for the
Philistines' attack on/udah in the time of Ahaz (2 Ch 28^^) is no
evidence of an attack on Ephraim, which is the sole subject of
this strophe at least (v.^), and Am i® is ambiguous. — iic. d.
Cp. 5^^
7. lan] <& ddvarov (cp. Am 4^^) vocalising n^^, which is adopted as
correct by Sta. {ZATW, 1905, p. 140) ; MT n^^ is right (so E^F and the
later text of (& ^*^). — ^BTi] pf. with waw conv. after a prophetic pf. : Dr.
§ 113 (i). Du., Marti think v.'** over-short, and Marti suggests reading
Ssj ^331. But even this would not balance the lines : apparently here, as in
9^^ and probably in 9^*^, the full unit of six accents is divided into 4 + 2 instead
of the prevailing 3 + 3. — 8. iSd oyn] more emphatic and rhythmically more
suitable than oyrrVs : cp. I4-''- ^^, and see Driver, Samuel, p. 187 (on 2 S 2^).
— tdk'? . . . niNJ3] ffi had the same text, but it is now generally admitted
that the clause is corrupt, hdn*? can only be a gerundial continuation of lyiM,
they shall know {it) . . . saying; and this gives no satisfactory sense. The
clause is, to judge from the well marked structure of the poem, the
IX. 7-1 I, 12-16 185
remnant of six words : I suspect that three words, in part parallel to mMJ3
22^ h'\i2^, have dropped out before mKJ3, and that TDK? was added after this
loss. Emendations have mostly proceeded from the supposition that two
words have been lost before niKJ3 : Bick. supplies iSSnnn -itk, Che. (SBOT)
Dflny Dnppon, Marti im ttk, Cond. and RV tacitly nOK "wn. — xo. 33«n] the
idea of inaccessibility as well as that of height, seems frequently to be ex-
pressed by the root 2iv ; so the Piel may mean to render {^inaccessibly) highy
and hence secure ; see Ps 20^ 59^ 91" (|| oVa) and cp. the force of Kal, Dt 2* :
see also Is 2^^ But this would obviously give no suitable sense here ; for
the clause would mean that the enemies would be placed beyond attack. It
is usual (see BDB) therefore to assume a unique nuance for ivo in the pre-
sent passage, viz. to exalt (in effective hostility) ; but even so the sentence
is not altogether satisfactory. Versions earlier than U {elevavit) do not
recognise any such sense here ; ^ ']'pm and & ^Jik-.^^ both meaning to make
'strong. It is not clear that (Sr's text had 3JB'1: f>da<reiVy which stands for
it here, represents ran in 13'*, voi in Jer 23^, but never 2iv. And yet 2W
and its derivatives were understood by the Greek translator of Isaiah :
for though he uses different words (dxvpds, 26' and probably 30"*, dyiosy
33', and iyj/wO-fyreTai in 2"* *'), all of them are true to the sense of inac-
cessibility or height. The reading 3Jri thus rests under suspicion. — nx nit
vhv \'^'\ The overlined letters obviously stood in (!Er as well as in ^ j for ffi
renders roi/s ivaviarafi^ovs iirl 6poi Zctcby iir airrdv of which the last four
words are certainly =v^j; pjf in. Du. claims that (& read in full pst in iy,
and that this was an incorrect division of a stage in J^, pjn rvvt^ due to the
intrusion of pJ<n which had been a gloss on mx (=nj<, G-K. gie). It is not
certain that (& read (')n^ ; but that p^fT should be rejected as a gloss is fairly
certain, and that we should read vnx (Bredenkamp, al.) not improbable;
the presence of psn disturbs the reference of the pronoun in the next line and
makes its own line overlong and the whole difficult of interpretation. The
omission of pj^T gives for the whole v. the same rhythm as in v.', viz. 4+2. —
1030'] and 'nsDOO, i9^t, are now generally regarded as forms with substitution
of 0 for b of 13b, whence Ife', a thorn : cp. Ar. CJ w», to pierce ; hence 1030, to
spur on. Rather less vividly % my, and in 19* nan : (ffi in 19* iTreyep-
d-^aovrat. — iVdki] ST pf. ; ^H future ; MT impf. with waw conv. ; (jR rodt
KaTe<rdLovTas = chjiiri. — na ^3] cp. I* n.
12-16. A day of overwhelming disaster. — The first
judgment leads to no greater regard for Yahweh (v.^^), complete
depravity continues (v.^^®* <*). Consequently Yahweh will bring
about a single day of overwhelming disaster when high and low
will perish (v.^^). The flower of Israel's youth, its widows and
orphans, no longer enjoy Yahweh's care (v.^®). The vagueness of
the description points to the strophe being prophetic, not
historical. Even Di., who would interpret historically, doubts
whether the " day " is a day of battle (cp. v.^), or of revolution, as
1 86 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
when Pekah with fifty companions slew Pelj:ahiah (2 K 15^^).
In any case the strophe does not refer to any known event,
much less to any event known to have occurred between what is
described in the preceding and following strophes,
12. The people returned noi\ Hos 7^^, Am 4^ etc. — Him that
smote theni\ i.e. Yahweh : cp. Hos 6^, and ct. the entirely different
use of the phrase in lo^o. — 12b. Cp. 31^. — Head and tail, palm-
branch and reed] the high and the low, or the leaders and the
rank-and-file. Cp. 19^^ Dt 28^^-^. Ges. cites from the Arabic,
"Some are the nose and the rest the tail." — 14. An annotation,*
interpreting " the head " and " the tail " of v.^^. Note the charac-
teristic fc?in, used alike by Jewish and Arabic annotators, the
borrowed phraseology (cp. 32^-), and the fact that the interpretation
agrees neither with the context nor with 19^^ — 15. A variation
of 3^2c. d This v., too, may be a gloss ; it neither makes a good
sequence to v.^^, nor gives ground for the therefore of v.^^. — 16.
He will not rejoice over] the phrase (39^) is perhaps too weak for
the context, see phil. n. — Young men] Am 4^^. — Because he is
wholly profane] the pron. refers to the personified nation. —
Impiety] cp. 32^ n.
12. inaon] Originally, perhaps, nann (so one MS) ; but inaon (with both
art. and suffix), called in question by Lag., is defended by No. {ZDMC^
1878, p. 402); the suf. is ace. : G-K. ii6/".— iiik3s] (& omits. — 13. .ti.t] is
unnecessary, and apparently disturbs the rhythm. — 15. Dy'?3D] 3^2 jj^ — jg^
nofc"] Lag. nB'3' = nD3', 31*: cp. Ex i^^-^, — ^y\H] possibly an addition
after the intrusion of w.*** (").
17-20. Civil War is the fresh element in this third picture
of coming jndgment : Israelite relentlessly pursues Israelite, tribe
is ranged against tribe. — 17, More punishment must come, for
unrighteousness will still pervade the State like a destructive fire
which, kindling in inflammable briars of the steppes, spreads to
and destroys the forest. — 18. This land, whose people are wholly
unrighteous (v.^^), will suffer from the overflow of YahweKs anger
{r\\r\'' mnv). So in 10* the "profane nation" of Judah is "the
people of, i.e. who provoke, my overflowing anger" (^ni3y Dy).
The meaning of the vb. in v.^^, left untranslated above, is
altogether uncertain ; see phil. n. — l8b. And the people became
like] the point of comparison is ambiguously expressed : J^ may
* So Koppe, Ges., and with few exceptions {e.g. Del., Cond.) all writers
since.
IX. 12-20 1 87
mt2tn food for fire, as in v.*, or food for men^ or with the alteration
of a single letter, devourers of men^ cp. Ezk 36^^ (see phil. n.) ; if
the last be correct, v.^^^ forms a suitable introduction to the
description that follows of the cannibal-like hostility of the
Israelites towards one another. On the other hand, |^, however
interpreted, forms no suitable introduction to vv.^^* '^ \ in MT,
RV, the line recurs to the figure of a fire, though that figure
appears to be complete in v.^^; and the people as a whole
are represented as consumed by fire before they fall on one
another. — i8c is out of place in J§ : it should follow ^®^ : see
phil. n. — 19a. b. The inappeasable hostility of the people is
compared to a hunger which is constantly and largely fed but
never satisfied. — Ipc. His neighbour's flesh"] see phil. n. ?^ has
the flesh of his own arm. — 20. As participants in the Civil War,
Ephraim and Manasseh are singled out for mention, partly
because these tribes were the two chief constituents of the
Northern kingdom, partly because, as sons of Joseph, they were
the most closely related. In prophecy this would be perfectly
natural and effective, and in a poetical retrospect of the past
scarcely impossible, even though the actual feuds of recent
years had not been limited to the two tribes that are named.
Winckler, however, thinks that the references to the past are
specific and precise; he argues that the characteristic of the
period between the death of Jeroboam 11. and the reorganisation
of Israel by Assyria was strife between the people E. and W. of
Jordan, i.e. Ephraim and Manasseh; he sees in Shallum ben
fabesh who overthrew Zechariah (2 K 15^®) a citizen of Jabesh-
Gilead in Manasseh (KAT^ 263). However that may be, in
Yy^i6-20a Isaiah certainly is describing, whether historically or
(as is more probable) prophetically, a state of affairs similar to
what he actually witnessed in the Northern kingdom. Within
a single year Jeroboam 11. died, and his successor Zechariah was
overthrown by Shallum, and Shallum in his turn by Menahem
b. Gadi (2 K 15^^'-). — Together . . . against JudaK\ not al-
together easy to explain either historically or prophetically if
the words are a part of the original poem. It would be curious
in a historical reference to the Syro-Ephraimitish war not even
to mention Syria, the chief opponent of Judah. On the other
hand, if it is prophecy, the point of this strophe, which is that
the Northern kingdom will be punished by civil discord, is
1 88 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
blunted by being made to close with the announcement that the
civil discord will give place to union, even though that union be
utilised for an attack on Judah. Possibly Eichhorn was right,
even though his reasons were wrong, in treating these words as
a gloss. They may be the comment of a scribe who had in
mind the Syro-Ephraimitish war, and the original text may have
brought the strophe to an effective close on the note of civil
discord within the Northern kingdom. The distich in the
present text is rhythmically peculiar (4 + 3 : see above) ; at need
it could be read differently (3 + 3 + 3) ; then Manasseh^ Ephraim^
and Ephraim^ Manassehy instead of being a single line, makes
two parallel lines in the normal rhythm of the poem. If the
next strophe is intrusive (see below), this description of civil war
was immediately followed by the description of the Assyrian
invasion which is to subdue all these tribes now set against one
another. The sequence in this case, and the phraseology at the
close of this strophe, may be paralleled by the prediction in the
legend of Dibbarra of the wars which are to involve all creation : —
And thus the warrior Dibbarra spoke : Sea-coast (against) sea-
coast, Subartu against Subartu, Assyrian against Assyrian, . . .
country against country, house against house, man against man.
Brother is to show no mercy towards brother ; they shall kill one
another. . . . After a time the Akkadian will come, overthrow
all and conquer all of them; cited by M. Jastrow, Bab. Ass.
Eel. 532 : cp. KB vi. 67.
17, "l32Kni] (& <rv7/faTa0a7crat=l^3Kni. fj^ is a Snc. X67., but cp. Assyr.
ab&ku (see Haupt in SBO T). i3Knn, if akin to iB.nnn, should mean to twist
about ; cp. the similar nuances of isnnrt in Gn 3^*, Job 37^^, Jg 7^', — jjyy niNJ]
modal ace. (cp. G-K. § Ii8<7), or ace. of the product (G-K. 117//). mna of
physical uplifting is rare ; but see Ps 89^". — 18. niK3J<] ffi om. : in |^ rhyth-
mically suspicious. — pK Dny:] Doubtful. Note (!)(!& ffvyK^Kaxrrai ij 7^ ^^7 ;
(2) pK is indef., but the || Dyn defined ; (3) px is fem., onyj masc. ; yet
see G-K. 145*? ; (4) onyj is from a root otherwise unknown in Heb. or Aram.
Arabic has (a) Jkc, t9 be late ; {b) itJ^% to be dogged in speech ; aJLc» suffocating
hecU\ whence onyj has been supposed to mean either (i) to be dark^ or (2) to
be burnt up ; but see W. R. Smith mJPh.^ 1885, p. 61. We are reduced to
guessing either the meaning of onya or the word of which anyj is a corruption.
€r avyK^Kavrai, tZH nann (v.l. nann), S AlI (=V>i, 242®); U conturbata est.
Kroch., Kit., Che. propose nnyi, which would be a feeble repetition ofthevb.
in v."® ; Marti nyna {reels) ; but whether this or 7\^-i (,S) is the right word to
introduce the next line is doubtful.— sfN n^DKoa] MT i?n, as in v.*; but »n
IX. I7-20, X. 1-4 1^9
is possible ; «"k is always written vh in the Siloam Inscr. Then reading
♦^jk 03 for nVDKDD, Du. obtains /t'ke devomers of men. — 19. iivi] subj.— oyn
in v.^'*», from which v.'^ is now separated by the misplacement of v.**" (sec
above), iia means to cut, particularly to cut in twoy or like y^^^ to cut off. —
V3r] read yar ; note ffi and the three preceding vbs. — ijnJ] read with Seeker,
al. ^y"! : (!K^ has fipaxiovot toO ddeXtpov — a doublet in which the first word b
secondary ; tJT n'2np.
X. 1-4. The Doom of unjust Judges.— This strophe
is curiously unlike those that precede : in each of those, judgment
is categorically announced, and the cause for it directly stated ;
here the coming of " a day of visitation " is assumed in a question
put to those whom it will overtake, and the ground of judgment
is implied in the description of those to whom the opening inter-
jection of calamity refers. The subject of the first three strophes
is an entire people or country, which is throughout referred to in
the third person : the subject of this strophe is a particular class
— the judges that take bribes and wrong the poorer litigants ; and
these people are here addressed in the second person.
Largely on the ground of this change some scholars treat lo*****, or lo^"'
(Marti), as intrusive (see above, p. 180). Other reasons urged are that if lo*
be original, ^^'^ would describe a catastrophe after the catastrophe, that the
opening 'in connects 10*"* with 5^"^, that lo^"' forms no advance in the ascending
series of punishments, that the care for the widow expressed in 10' represents
rather a less severe attitude than that of 9^'. A further argument urged by
some is that this strophe refers to Judah, and is therefore out of place in a
poem directed against Israel. Apart from the last (on which see below), some
of these arguments taken singly and still more when taken together are weighty.
On the other hand, it may be urged, though perhaps with scarcely equivalent
force, that it would be curious for an intrusive section to be of the exact
length of the other strophes. Even if intrusive, the section is probably
Isaianic, and possibly it once formed part of the collection of ** Ah's" in 5^"^ :
it is slightly longer than 5^'^, somewhat shorter than 5""" ; but the question
and the address in 10^ differentiates this section no less from the ** Ah's" of
5®"^ than from the other strophes of the poem. See in addition to the
Commentaries, Giesebrecht, 10 ff. ; Hackmann, 54.
It has been supposed by many * that this strophe refers to
Judah. That it could refer to Judah, if it stood by itself, is
obvious ; but that it must refer to Judah, because it could not
refer to the Northern kingdom, holds only, if even then, provided
the reading " the poor of my people " in v.^ be retained. Other
arguments prove no more than that the section, if it stood by
itself, might refer to Judah : thus it is true that the interjection
•Ew., Che., Di.
190 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
MH is common to the several sections of 5^-2* and to this ; but
while it is not certain that the whole of 5^"^* refers to Judah, it is
certain that ""in also introduces Isaiah's denunciations of Ephraim
in 28^-*. Charges against the rulers of greed and unrighteousness
do indeed " run like a red thread through Isaiah's speeches
against Judah" (3'^'^^- ^^-"^^ jiz. 26j. i^^t the same disorder pre-
vailed in the Northern kingdom (cp. e.g. Am 5^2). Finally, Di.
urges that 9^0 forms the transition to Judah ; but the allusion
to Judah in 9^0 is perhaps secondary (see above), and in any
case, though 9^0 may mention, it forms no transition to, Judah ;
it contains no indication that the poet having spoken of Ephraim
hitherto, is now going to limit himself to Judah. On the other
hand, if lo^^* refers to Judah, it is not both the immediate sequel
to ^^^ and the immediate prelude to 526-29 ; it is either intrusive,
or the transition has been lost. For, on the supposition that
10^-* refers to Judah, and that with ^''^^ and 526-29 it forms a
complete poem, we should have this highly improbable result :
in three strophes condemnation of the entire people of the
Northern kingdom, in one strophe condemnation of a very
limited class in the Southern kingdom, in a final strophe the same
complete judgment for the two kingdoms, whose cup of iniquity
(as described) is so unequally filled.
We must conclude, then, that this strophe, if it formed the
fourth of a poem complete in five strophes, referred like the rest
to Ephraim ; but that if it is not an original part of the poem, it
may have referred to either Judah or Ephraim (or both) if " my
people" in lo^ be rejected, but in all probability to Judah only
if " my people " be retained.
I, 2. One class of persons, not two (RV), are here denounced,
and their evil activity is described by two parallel and synonymous
expressions (see phil. n.). The persons referred to are not the
makers of laws (Di.) — for new laws, whether good or bad, were
not an annual production as in modern states — but the admin-
istrators of the laws, the judges or arbitrators; these, being
bribed, assigned property in dispute, or determined penalties
without regard to the rights of the question, but merely according
to the price paid for their decision, so that the poor lost their
cases, or the substance of widows and orphans was wasted in
trying to pay a high enough price for what was theirs by right.
Thus the decrees^ or decisions^ of these judges are mischievous^ or
X. 1-3 191
hurtful to, and entail suffering on, the weaker parties. The force
of pN, hurt, or mischief may be illustrated by Pr 12^^ 22^, Jer
4^^ cp. also Nu 23*1 n. ; and of the synonymous i^oy, which is not
perverseness (RV), by 59*, Ps 7^^, and especially 9420. When the
judges are said to inscribe and write the decrees, it is not, of
course, meant that they necessarily did the actual writing, but
that they were the authors of the decisions and had them written
down : this use of the vb. to write, not uncommon in other
languages, occurs clearly in Jer 36^8 (cp. yP\ Est 8*-^®, and
doubtless often elsewhere, e.g. Dt 24^ 17^^; but cp. especially
Job 13^^ "Thou writest (or registerest) (a bitter decision) against
me, and causest me to inherit the iniquities of my youth," where
the Kal (nn^n) seems to be used with the same technical, legal
sense as the Piel (DUnao) here.
A very large number of the written records of decisions of the Assjrian
and Babylonian law-courts have been preserved ; these deal with a great
variety of disputes touching inheritance, deposits, partnerships, lands, houses,
and other property (see Johns, Bab. and Ass. Laws, Contracts, and Letters,
ch. vi.); the procedure in some cases is described, e.g. "two parties dispute
as to the possession of a sum which is actually in the hands of a banker. The
banker accordingly undertakes to produce the sum and its interest in court,
and to pay it over to the successful party in the suit. The decision was
written down and the notary of the court gave a copy to the plaintiff, if not
also to the defendant, and kept one copy for the archives" {ib. p. 109).
Similar Jewish documents of the 5th cent. B.C. have been found; for some
of the Assouan papyri are agreements with regard to property drawn up after
an appeal to the tribunal. In Jer 3a''** we have a precise account of the
writing of a deed of sale.
2. See under I. — The poor\ J^ffi -Vof my people. But the
addition has probably resulted from dittography : it overloads
the line, has nothing corresponding to it in the parallel line, and
it suddenly introduces the first person, which appears nowhere
else in the poem. If my people be original, or an intentional
addition to the text, the pronoun refers either (i), least unnatur-
ally, to the prophet: cp. 22* and perhaps 3^2 22I8. is^ or (2) to
Yahweh, as in 3^^ 10** and perhaps 312 (cp. 3*- 1*). If (i) be
right, the people must be Judah ; if (2) either Judah, or Israel,
or both, though perhaps more probably Judah. — 3. What will
ye do (cp. Hos 9^), ye judges, who have provoked Yahweh by
your unrighteous abuse of your office (cp. i^^^ 5^), when His day
comes ? — The day of visitation'] i.e. of punishment ; cp. Hos g^
192
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
the days of visitation^ the sing, and pi. interchanging as in the
phrases " that day," or " those days," applied to the great
future day when Yahweh will appear. — The storni\ tempestuous
weather is one of the accompaniments of a theophany, or the
means whereby Yahweh executes judgment ; see 2^^*^ Z^^i Nah i^.
Ps 508, Zee 9l^ Am i^*, Job 9!^ 381 40^, i K 19". So here
the day of visitation of Yahweh is thought of as a desolating
storm already brewing in the distance, noisy with thunder and
hail : men would fain flee from it (cp. Ex gi^ff.) to some place of
refuge for themselves and their glory, i.e. valuable possessions
(61*, Gn 31^, Ps 49^^) ; but Yahweh, the true refuge {e.g. 25*,
Ps 46^), is Himself the cause of this storm, and consequently for
the unjust judges here addressed there will be no refuge to flee to.
— That cometh from afar] c^. 5^6 30^7 "the conception of distance
had a peculiar fascination for the early prophets. For the
common Numina were gods * near at hand * : Yahweh alone sees
and works in the distance ; cp. especially Jer 2322^, a passage
which clearly shows how the conception of a distant god formed
the bridge to the idea of the all-present God" (Du.); cp. also
Ps 138^ — 4. The text of the first line must be wrong (see phil. n.) :
the translation above presupposes that J^ has suffered through the
loss of a single letter ; possibly the corruption may be deeper ;
if not, there appears to be a rapid transition from the picture of
the storm to that of a battle, in which many fall prisoners to
Yahweh and the rest are slain. Lagarde, by a re-division of the
words in J^, obtained the meaning Beltis is crouching, Osiris is
broken in pieces (cp. 46^, Jer 50^), and therefore cannot be your
refuge. But there is no independent proof that the Hebrews
worshipped Beltis ( = Isis) at all, nor evidence of any prevalence
of the worship of Osiris ; yet it must be obvious that Isaiah
could only have closed his strophe thus, if these two deities were
among those most widely worshipped at that time by Israelites
disloyal to Yahweh. At a later date, Plutarch {Isis et Osiris, 15,
16) refers to the worship of Osiris at Byblus ; and some, though
comparatively few, images of Osiris have been found at Gezer;
see Exp., May 1909, p. 440.
I. D'3n3D . , , D'ppnn] o'dddd without the art. (€r as well as |^) is probably
WQ\. parallel to li''p^r\n with the art. ; nor is una '?Dy a rel. sent., but ian3 is
the finite vb. carrying on what was begun with the part. D'ppnn (Dr. § 117 J
G-K. ii6jf), and it is strengthened by D'ansD, which, being in the ace, is
X. 1-4 193
therefore undefined, as, e.g.^ in Ps 56' 92" (G-K. 118/). The Piel (inten-
sive) of ana occurs here only. — 'ppn] G-K. 93M.— cow nni] hk with an
undefined noun— rare : G-K. i\Td\ BDB 85a. — ua'] G-K. 114^. — ^3.
rjKirV)] S resumes dv^ of v.**, though even by itself it means at the time of
(7" n.).— nKW] storm (as Pr i", Ezk 38', Zeph i"), is from \/»n», which is
parallel to \^iw : derivatives from both roots seem to point to the meanings
of noisiness and wasteness ; prob. that of noisiness (whence the meaning
storm) is the original ; see especially jiKr (from r\wtf) used of various noises,
TiiMf (Is i7^-'*)» Tmxn\ (Is 22^^). — 'D Sy] prob. pregnant — to whom will ye flee
and rely on them? — 4. "I'OK nnn jna ^nSa] impossible. Most attempted
translations assume for 'nVa a meaning, or usage, which cannot be justified.
The actual Hebrew usage of 'nVa is as follows : i. it may be = nVa+ 1st pers.
sing, suffix, and mean except me (Hos 13*, i S 2't) ; but this does not justify
without me — RVmarg., and some earlier interpreters (cp. Ges. ) ; or 2. it
may be = n^a + a binding vowel. In this case it is used (a) as an adv. meaning
not before adjectives {e.g. 14*, i S 20^) — obviously inapplicable here : or {b)
as an adv., but always after a negative expressed or implied, meaning except
{e.g. Gn 21^, Nu 32^^): cp. usage i ; or (^) as a conj., but always after a
negative expressed or implied : cp. Gn 43', Nu 1 1*, and with the addition of
DK, Am 3*' *. BDB bring the present passage under the last usage, explaining
" (And where will ye leave your glory ?) save that they bow down under the
prisoners, and fall under the slain, i.e. (iron.) their only refuge will be among
the corpses of a battle-field." Grammatically this might do, if the verbs in
the exceptive sentence were in the same person as that in the principal ; as a
matter of fact the 2nd pi. (laiyn) of the principal sentence is followed in the
exceptive sentence by one vb. in the 3rd sing. pf. (yna) and one in the 3rd pi.
impf. (^Vfl')* This really separates the present passage sharply from Nu 1 1*,
its nearest parallel. RV They shall only bow down^ etc., might find some
support in Phoenician usage, for the Tabnith Inscription (Cooke, NSI^ p. 26)
contains this sentence : i jina aar ijk n^a . . . pn |Sik 'K, / have nogoldy
I am only lying in this coffin ; but the use of the binding vowel with such a
meaning would be strange, and Hebrew has its own particle to express only,
viz. "IH. From this surely it will be seen that it is only by assuming an
unparalleled usage of TiSa that it is possible to obtain even such highly im-
probable translations as unless one stoops under a prisoner they must fall under
the slain (Di.). The corruption of the text is probably as old as (& : the
whole V. runs in ^ tov fx\) ifnreffeiv els iirayuiyfiv, with the addition in **a, of koI
inroK&roi dLvrjp-qfiiviav veaovvrai ; rod fi^ points to 'nSa ; with ifiireffeiv cp. the
simple veaeTv as a rendering of yna in 46^ 65*^, and with dirayury^ the use of
the vb. Airdyeiv in Gn 39^ 40' 42^^ ; the noun dTa7W7^ occurs only in I Es
8** and Sir 38^'. (& may have read 'n^a^ ; but whether it did so or not the
restoration of 'n^a^ and the substitution of iSfin for iVb» in the next line gives
an excellent Hebrew construction iSfln . . . yh? 'nSaS : cp. 11a* , . . wnV,
v.* n. ; or as an alternative, epigraphically somewhat likelier, we might read
'n^ao, assuming that D was lost through haplography. But is to crouch under
the prisoners (tdr coll.) a probable idiom? Lagarde {Academy ^ 15 Dec.
1370= Symmicta, i. 105) proposed tdk nn nyna ♦nSa, Beltis is crouching,
VOL, I» — 13
194
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
\
Osiris is shattered', cp. 46^ Jer 50^; nyns being a part., the subj. 'nVa would
precede it according to rule (Dr. § 135 (4)) ; for idn (of which ton would be
merely a later scriptio plena), Osiris, cp., in Phoenician, e.g. iDcnoN, noKnay
{CIS i. 122 : Malta, 2nd cent. B.C.), and the same form in other Phoenician
names.
X. 5'"34* — Three Poems^ together with annotations and addenda.
The poems, or poetical fragments, are {a) w.*-®* i^-^^ (i^) \
prevailing rhythm 3 : 3 (: 3) : to this w.^^-^^ may also belong ;
{b) VV.27C-32 • prevailing rhythm 2:2; (<:) vv.^^^- ; rhythm probably
3:3. Prose notes and addenda are v v. i^- 19. 20-23. 24-26. other
addenda are the distich in v. 27 and vv.^^* ^^ (prose ?).
Isaiah's authorship of («), at least of vv.^-^* i^^-, is probable :
there are no conclusive positive arguments either for or against
his authorship of (f) and (<:). The dates of the poems cannot be
very closely determined : the prose addenda are late.
A close and detailed interpretation of the passage is the best proof that
it lacks the unity of a speech or prophecy written on or for a single particular
occasion. Two views that its heterogeneous elements have been welded into
a literary unity may be referred to. (i) Di., who extends this literary unity
down to 11^*, remarks, "The passage is, to be sure, a literary, but not
a rhetorical unity. . . . The double description of the punishment of Assyria
with the result therefrom ensuing for Israel (lo^^'^- ^■^) does not leave the
impression of having been spoken at the same time; 11"*^' though cleverly
united by v.^° with w.^"* is yet too dissimilar to vv.^"* to have been announced
in one and the same discourse with it, and 11^"^ again can scarcely have been
originally attached to lo^'**, since there is no indication there of the setting
aside, or previous abdication, of the reigning king. The entire passage seems
rather to be an artistic collection of the leading thoughts of Isaiah's speeches
between 732 and 716 (at latest Tii), possibly made for the purpose of serving
as a conclusion to chs. 7ff. (or iff.)." This theory breaks down if the view
taken below of vv.*^*" (see also on v.^*'**) be correct ; on the other hand, it
would still be possible to hold (2) Marti's theory, according to which lo"*** is
a skilful arrangement of fragments made by an editor so as to produce a small
picture depicting the pangs of the Last Days, and the assembling of the
world power of Antichrist before the Gates of Jerusalem, and of its destruction
there.
X. 5-17. — The fatal arrogance of Assyria, 41
After the removal of nDN(') '3 {y\.^^), which is doubtless an editorial
addition, the prevailing rhythm in vv."''* ^^'* is the line of three accents
arranged in distichs or tristichs. Lines of doubtful or different length are
vv.sb. «c. d. 8. 14b In y^5a ,,,t j^ay stand by itself (cp. ^-^ : see p. 89) ; in
Y_i3d D.Tm'ny is two accents. The '•hythm 3 : 3 also appears in v.^, and by
am
wroth
I
com-
mand
him,
like
mire
of
the
Streets.
X. 5-34 195
emendation, partly after (Br, in w."- '*» ; but in v.** it is 6 : 6. Vv.*'"** are
mostly or entirely prose, and are omitted from the translation.
5 Ah!
Assyria the rod of my anger,
And . . . the staff of my indignation.
* Against a profane nation I send him,
And against the people with whom I
To take spoil and acquire plunder,
And to make them trampled upon
^ But he thinketh not so,
Nor thus doth his heart devise;
But to destroy is in his heart,
And to cut off nations not a few : —
® "Are not my rulers one and all kings?
• Is not Calno like Carchemish ?
Is not Hamath like Arpad?
Is not Samaria like Damascus?
13 By the strength of my hand have I wrought,
And by my wisdom, for I have discernment.
I have removed the boundaries of peoples.
And I have plundered their stores (?),
And I have brought down *in the dust' the enthroned.
1* And my hand hath reached as to a nest
To the wealth of the peoples;
And as one gathereth eggs
/ have gathered the whole earth :
And there was none that fluttered wing,
Or opened mouth or chirped."
1^ Should the axe vaunt itself against him that heweth there-
with?
Or the saw magnify itself against him that draweth it to
and fro?
(Nay, that would be) like the rod swinging him that
raiseth it,
Like the staff raising (him that is) not wood.
196
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
i
^^ Therefore Yahweh of Hosts will send leanness into his fat,
And under his glory hath he kindled a kindling as a
kindling of fire;
^*' And it shall be . . . ^^^ consuming soul and body.
^"^ And the light of Israel shall become a fire,
And his Holy One a 'burning' flame;
And it shall devour his thorns and briars a,
^8 And the glory of his forest and his garden land.
Assyria, who was being used by Yahweh to punish His
disobedient people (cp. g^-io^ + ^^^-^^), had arrogantly attributed
all its success to its own power, not discerning that it was a mere
instrument in Yahweh's hands : therefore it must be destroyed
(cp. vv.i^^-).
The allusions in v.® show that this poem was written after
717 B.C. Further than that nothing conclusive can be said.
Some think that it was written in 711 B.C. ; others in 701. Che.
{Introd. pp. 50 f.) gives a survey of theories and arguments. If
V.® forms no part of the poem (Marti, Comnu p. 104 f.), the date
becomes so much the more undefined ; and Konig {Einleitungy
p. 315), though he retains v.^, attempts to assign io*-ii^*^ to the
years 724-722 B.c.
5 f. Assyria is the rod (Pr 23^^-) with which Yahweh whips
His rebellious children (i^) for their good; in order to satisfy
His righteous anger with His people, He suffers Assyria to plunder
Judah and trample it down. — The staff of my indignation] the
two parts of the phrase (cp. the parallel phrase) are interrupted
in 5^ by the words // is in their hand-, these are probably the
note of a reader who had remarked that in v.^^ Assyria wields
the rod. RV by straining the Hebrew obtains the bizarre figure
of a staff holding indignation in its hand. — 6. A profane nation]
cp. 9^^. — / send him] the tense may be frequentative, am 1
wont to send him. Yahweh's will is that His people shall be
plundered (cp. 8* of Ephraim) and downtrodden (cp. 28^8 56
725) ; but 7, Assyria thinks otherwise ; it is in his heart (63*, i S
14'', 2 K lo^^'), i.e, he intends, {a) to destroy and not only to
plunder and trample down ; {b) to exterminate many nations
irrespective of their having provoked Yahweh's anger. Such is
the thought suggested by the present connection; it may be
summed up in this — Assyria is guided not by the will of Yahweh, j
X. 5-17 197
but by its own cruel lust ; consequently it exceeds its commission.
Assyria's other thoughts are also expressed in vv.^"^* ^^^-^ but there
the emphasis falls rather on the pride and self-confidence of the
nation or its king. — 9. All cities are alike before it, is the boast
of Assyria. The six capitals of states here mentioned represent
the ominous extension of Assyria's conquest towards Jerusalem :
Carchemesh, the most remote, begins the list ; each following
name is nearer Jerusalem than that which precedes, and the list
ends with Samaria nearest both geographically and by the tie of
kinship of its inhabitants. The order is clearly geographical;
it is not chronological. Carchemish^ mod. Jerabis on the
Euphrates, is about 360 miles in a direct line from Jerusalem,
and further by the military and trade route. Calno is in all
probability the Kullani of the Assyrian inscriptions (see phil. n.),
which was in Northern Syria: the name perhaps survives in
Kullanhou, about 6 miles from Tell Arfad (Arpad); see KAT^
55, 186, and S. R. Driver's note on Am 6^, where other less
probable views are also mentioned. Kullani lay about 50 miles
S.W. of Carchemish, Arpad lies 13 miles N.W. of Aleppo,
^amath on the Orontes is about 100 miles S. of Arpad and
rather more than that distance N. of Damascus^ Damascus being
again about 100 miles N.E. of Samaria. Some of these places
were frequently made tributary and even captured by Assyria;
but it is difficult to believe that the mention of Damascus and
Samaria refer to anything but the capture of the former in 734
by Tiglath-pileser, and of the latter in 722 by Sargon. Conse-
quently we have here the conquests of Assyria (cp. v.** ; ct. vy^\
not of a single Assyrian king. The references are probably to
the captures of Carchemish in 7 1 7 B.C., Kullani in 738, the event
of that year in the Eponym list, Arpad in 740, Qamath in 720,
Damascus in 734, Samaria in 722.
10 f. Since the great cities mentioned in v.^ have fallen,
Jerusalem need not expect to stand; cp. 36^^- 37^^"^^ also
Am 62. The argument is sufficiently suggested by the order in.
which the towns are mentioned in v.®, and not improbably the
original poem adopted the rhetorically effective device of leaving
the ominous conclusion to be drawn (cp. 5'' n.) : for w.^<^-, which
indicate the conclusion explicitly, may be an addition : v}^ seems
to be prose, and though v.^^ may be a distich, yet the lines
would be longer than those which prevail in the poem. — 10. |^
198
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idol{s) (2* n.)
and their graven images than {ox from) Jerusalem and Samaria, is
mutilated (see phil. n.), but the general" sense is clear. — 11. Shall
I not, as I have done to Samaria and its idols, so do to Jerusalem
and its images ?] In another context these might well be words of
Yahweh. In the mouth of Assyria they are blasphemy against
Yahweh, for they imply that He is but one of the not-gods. V.io
appears to contrast the cities which are said to have fallen (v.^)
with Jerusalem and Samaria as still standing, but in v.^ Samaria
is one of those that had fallen ; v.^^ reverts to the standpoint of
v.^ and expresses the conclusion, which v.® suggests, that after
Samaria comes the turn of Jerusalem.
12. Yahweh, having punished Jerusalem by means of Assyria
(v.''), will round off His work in Mt. Sion by punishing the king
of Assyria for his arrogance : in w.^^*^- this arrogance appears to
consist in attributing success to his own power. — And it shall
come to pass when the Lord finishes off all his work in Mt, Sion\
for the expressive vb. yxa, cp. Zee 4^, " the hands of Zerubbabel
have laid the foundations of this house ; his hands shall also give
it the finishing touch." The punishment of Assyria in Jerusalem
will be the finishing touch in the work that Yahweh has to do
there. The v. is prose : of its origin two views may be taken :
(i) it is a prose note added by Isaiah or an early editor at the
time when the present chapter was pieced together (cp. Cond.
p. 95) ; or (2) it is the note of a late editor or scribe. If (i) be
correct, the v. may be the literary germ of the eschatological idea
subsequently elaborated, that a great judgment on the nations
that had attacked Israel would take place in or about Jerusalem :
see Ezk chs. 38 f., Jl 4 (3)12-17, Zec 12I-9, Dn ii« If (2) be
correct, it is a summary statement of this idea, or a deduction
from it, applied to the specific case of Assyria. Gressmann
(pp. 177-179) cites as rare references to this idea in pre-exilic
prophecy. Is 8^^- i74ff. i2ff.^ ]y[ic 4; but in the case of each of
these passages either the proposed date or interpretation is
questionable : see above on 8^^*. — He will punish'] so ffi ; J^
I will punish. — Greatness of heart"] i.e. audacity, 9^ n. ; tYvQ fruit
of audacity is perhaps audacious speech (cp. BDB Z26b). — King
of Assyria] in the poem, Assyria is the subject : the singular
referring to Assyria being taken individually instead of collect-
ively, suggested the king to the annotator. — The height of his
X. II-I9 *99
eyes] i.e. his pride: the phrase occurs in Pr 21*, the idea in
Is 2".
13 f. Assyria attributes its conquests, so easily and completely
obtained (v.^^), to its own power and wisdom (v.^^). — Their stores
I plundered] the text is anything but certain, for why should the
conqueror plunder only things laid up in store? In Dt 32^ the
word rendered stores seems to mean "the destined future"
(Driver, ad loc.) : elsewhere it is used of persons ready or pre-
pared to do something (Job 152*, Est 3I* 8^3, Job 3^).— /« the
dust] for the conjecture, see phil. n. J^ like a mighty one
(Job 2tA^^ La 1^5), or, by a more questionable translation (Di.),
like a bull (cp. Ps 22^^ 50^^); ffi cities. — The enthroned] for 2K'\
to sit (enthroned)^ see Ps 2* 29^^, and perhaps Am i^'^. If the
wider sense inhabitants is meant, cp. "Bring down peoples,"
Ps 56®C^. — 14. In vivid figures the speaker enforces v.^^; he
has robbed, captured, and silenced the whole earth.
15. In attributing all its success to its own power (v.^**-),
Assyria had vaunted itself against Yahweh (cp. Jg 7^), or, being in
the terms of v.* a rod and stick in the hand of Yahweh, had
vaunted itself of guiding the hand that used it. Yet this was a
vain boast: as a matter of fact, and as everyday life proves,
implements such as the axe or the saw have no power of them-
selves, everything depends on the purpose and power of the man
who uses them. So the boast of Assyria is vain : history is the
revelation of Yahweh's purpose, not of Assyria's might. Such
seems to be the thought, but it is awkwardly expressed, for
which reason Du. considers it to be a late addition, and Cond.
places it after v.''.
16-19. The punishment of Assyria.— Something like
the substance of these verses is certainly required at this point
to carry out the threat suggested by the previous vv. ; but a
number of scholars have agreed with Du. that this section
cannot in its present form be the work of Isaiah ; the conclusion
is correct, but it might be more widely stated, viz. that in their
present form these verses do not represent the work of any
writer, but that they have suffered from some transposition of
lines and other corruption. For it seems incredible that even a
bungling imitator of Isaiah would have made quite such a
muddle of borrowed material as is found in the present text.
Du. holds that v.^^' ^ is borrowed from 17*, i^°* ^ suggested by 9*,
200 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
ira by 2i9^ 17b (fire and flame) by so^o, that i7«- ** = 9" + (in one
day) 9^^, and that v.^^^- (wood and garden land) comes from 32^^,
and "the child" in v.^^ from 11^. If all this is really borrowed
material, the passage is doubtless the work of a late supple-
menter. In that case the conclusion of the poem in vv.^- ^' ^^' ^^
has been lost: it is not to be sought with Che. in i42*-27.
Even if the verses belong to the same poem, they may not
be the immediate continuation of v.^^^^*)^ the suffixes in v.^^
suggest a more recent direct mention of Assyria. The
coming destruction is expressed by means of two figures — the
one of fatal disease attacking a healthy body, the other of a
destructive fire, consuming everything before it save for a few
trees that escape. At present the clauses referring to illness,
y 18b. 0^ stand in the middle of the description of the forest fire :
it is reasonable to suppose they are misplaced. \
16. Assyria, like Israel in i^, is compared to a human body;
at present it is in lusty health, /at and flourishing. But into this
body Yahweh dispatches leanness that it may waste the man
away. The figure is paralleled by 17*, the phraseology by
Ps 106^^ (if the text there be correct). But in spite of this the idea
is independently expressed, and with freshness and vigour which
by no means suggest a mere imitator. — His fai\ D^JtttJ'D are the
fat parts of the body, cp. 17* (sing.), and, figuratively, Dn 11 2*;
less probably his fat ones (RV), i.e, the warriors, cp. Ps 78^1.
Fat to the Hebrews was a sign of health and strength ; cp.
Jg 3^^' — Like the kindling offire\ this clause, if the kindling is an
actual fire, as is generally assumed, is a mere multiplication of
sound and words which may be attributed to the incompetent
imitator (Du.), or (? cp. (K) to textual accretion (Kit., Mar.). But
the kindling need not be a literal fire ; it may refer to fever : cp.
"like a burning fire shut up within my bones" (Jer 20^). Then
Assyria is conceived as a man not only fat and strong, but
gloriously apparelled ; under the outward glory ^ i.e. the splendid
raiment (cp. Ex 282- ^o^ Ps 45I* (?), Mt 6^9), the body burns with
fever which consumes both soul and body (v.^^^) ; cp. " consumption
and fever which consume the eyes and make the soul pine away "
(Lv 26^^). V.^6 indicates that Assyria will rapidly decay; the
figure of fire (v.^") suggests even more sudden destruction,
particuarly if in that day be original. Other explanations oi glory
are (i) that it refers to the imposing military might of Assyria
X. 1 6- 1 9, 5-9 201
regarded as a mass of inflammable material; so Di., and very
similarly Du., who compares 9* ; (2) that, as in 5^*, it means the
nobility, the nobles of Assyria (Ges.), who are to be burnt up with
the fire of war. In no case are both the significance of nu3 and
the figure the same as in 1 7*. — 17. A fresh figure : Yahweh the
light of Israel (q."^. Ps 27^), illuminating the way along which His
people should walk (2*^), is also a destructive fire, destroying
their enemies (Dt 9^) ; the Assyrians (cp. yy^'^^\ who if the v.
occupies its original position must be referred to here, are by
the requirements of the figure, the thorns and thistles^ in which a
fire kindles, forest and garden-land^ or orchard^ too, to which
such a fire may spread. — In a single day] 6r in that day. The
clause is out of place between the two sets of vegetation which
the flame consumes. With its omission ^^*- ^** becomes, like
the preceding, a 3 : 3 distich. — Consuming soul and flesh] the
clause, being inapplicable to trees (^^), is out of place ; see above.
— And it shall be . . .] the words that follow are doubtful (phil. n.) ;
neither as when a standard-bearer fainteth^ nor as when a sick man
pineth away, would be in place here; this clause, too, may be
misplaced as well as corrupt. — 19. The destruction is not quite
complete ; trees so few that they can easily be counted, or that
a child can make a list of them, survive. Possibly the v. comes
from a description of Yahweh's consuming fire destroying Israel
(Dt 4^4), but sparing an exiguous remnant (17^). The rhythm
is not that of vv.^'^- ^**.
5. DT3 Kin] a gloss (Hitz., al. : see Che. SBOT) ; note {a) the 3rd//. suffix
in reference to nu^K contrasts with the 3rd sing, in the poem ; {b) the words
divide 'Dyi noD, the synonymous parallel to 'BK B3t7 (v.***) ; (c) their presence
creates bad sense and poor parallelism. Probably some word either before
(cp. Che. SBOT, p. 195) or after 'oyj ntsD has dropped out; *in in the first
line is outside the rhythm of the distich : see note introductory to 5^"^ (p. 89).
For Kin ntsD some MSS have wbd. — 6. la la^ S^r Shvhl cp. Ezk 29'* 38^''*.
This and the next line read naturally as a 4 : 4 distich. Are the lines an
original part of the poem ? If they stand, v.'"* ^ seems to express the excess
of Assyria's action over Yahweh's commission ; yet is there much difference
between trampling a people to mire and destroying it? — tdk' 'a] an error,
through dittography, for not* '3 (cp. v.")? — 9. iJ*?a] MT points \3^3, in Am
6^, where the association with Hamath makes it fairly certain that the same
place is intended, nj^s : probably the name was 'jV|i ; cp. (K XoXawi;, Assyr.
Ep. list Kul-la-ni-i. But (5r wrongly identifies this XaXaypii with the
XaXavvT? of Gn lo^** and adds the note, inferred from Gn 10^® ll^**, o5 hirip^oi
(pKodofJL'^dr} ; the tower of Babel seems to have been a favourite thought with
202
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
ffi, cp. 9^*. (K further substitutes Arabia for Arpad and Hamath, and in
other respects renders vv.^*^' very freely. — 10. It is very doubtful whether
this V. ought to be made a little more tolerable in its context by reading nhttn
for h'hun and omitting |nDsyDi (Che. in SB07\ following suggestions of Gratz,
Hackm., Giesebrecht) : Marti rightly argues that ffir's iXoXiJIare (="i^'^'n) is
nearer '?''?Kn than rhnn -. certainly (It's TaiJras, in view of its position and the
paraphrase in ffir, is no evidence that rhi<ri stood after nia^Da*?. — Dn'!?'D£3i
nSm'D] commonly explained to be a circumstantial clause and an ellipsis for
uhm'T ♦V'DSD 13T d.t'?'D31, Kon. SoS^-; G-K. 133* : but in the alleged parallels
the text (Mic 7*, Pr iS^^), or the interpretation (Koh 4" 9", Is 412^, Ps 62^0)
is doubtful, or the cast of the sentence is different; in Job 11" a vb. is
expressed, and in Ezk 15', Ca 5' no.— 13. nniKi . . . Toxi] <& consistently
renders all the vbs. of vv."** " by futures, understanding that what Assyria
intends, Yahweh does not allow him to do. This interpretation also under-
lies the scriptio plena TDK, ttk. MT is inconsistent — TpNi, TniN], but
Ny^fil. The pf. tenses show that the writer intended npx;, ni'iNi, 'dbi : the
scriptio plena and ffi are wrong.— D.Tm'njn] The K"re 'ninyi differentiates the
word here from 'nJnyi in Dt 32^. On the Aramaic colouring of the word,
see Driver, Deut. pp. 374 f. It would be easy to restore onmnyi; cp. U
principeSi and see 14®. — "•ne'ir] = 'noiB' (cp. 42^4; see G-K. 6k) 'j T'Dit? is
read by some MSS.— Taio nniNi] K^tib T9><?, K«r6 T93 (17" 28=*), <& koI
aelffo) irSXeis. Du., combining |^ and (&, conjecturally restores any miNi
nsi^^ (or iJJNn) ; if nsya is rightly conjectured, nsyn nmw was probably the
source of both -i2K3 nxi (|§^) and my mwi {(B). — 14. (& abbreviates lines a-d,
paraphrases e-f ; b is short in |^. — 15. fi'jna] with the like of a staff's
shaking: see BDB, s.v. 3, p. 454b; cp. Wright, Arabic Gram. ii. 63: or
perhaps 3 represents a whole sentence. For instruments to boast them-
selves against the agent (^'^** *•) is like claiming to be themselves actually
agents. — ntao . . . ena'] without the art. : ct. jnjn, mrDn : this difference
is the stranger if a2B' refers back to v.*. — vd'TDTx] some MSS read 'D-riNi.
The pi. is an attempt by means of the pluralis majestatis to make the
reference to Yahweh clear: some MSS more correctly read tenD. — {'y k"?]
cp. jf'N-N'?, 318. — 16. \r\\i^Ti\ 3 MSS and ffir omit.— nnm] C5 KaX d%.—Vj. itjmpi
TC\vy\ Tiirhhl ^ koX ayidtxei avrbu iv irvpl Kaiofihcp = rf)]!2 n^nhn Sv-^p]; read
mj)2 nmh^ i8'i(?i, which is rhythmically equal, and parallel in sense, to JT'T
vnh 'b"'Tin. — 18. DD3 DDD3] (& 6 ^€&y<av (l)s 6 (f>eijy<i>v dirb (pXoybs Kaio/n^prji ; %
pnyi T3n ; SS (001 |\j y| |001J0 ; '}B terror e prof ugus. These guesses
are significant. Later, ddj suggested to Rashi dd, a wormy and to Ki. 03, a
standard {c^. AV, RVmarg,), The similar ending of the two words is sus-
picious. Like a sick man^s melting away, as when a sick man, etc., are very
questionable renderings ; for 0D3, to be sick, is without parallel in Heb., and
Syr. «DQJ, to be sick, may be derived from v6aoi ! see Che. in SBOT. The
text is corrupt. j
20-27. An Appendix to the preceding poem,
explaining that Yahweh's anger against His people is all but
spent ; that immediately those of them who have escaped and
^
X. io-i8, 20-27 203
remain, will be set free from the bondage of " Assyria," which
will in turn become the object of Yahweh's anger.
Two things are clear: (i) w. 20-27 are connected with w.*^-,
for his smiter, v. 20, ike rod^ v. 2*, and the stick, v.2«, are obvious
references back to v.*: (2) these verses are prose, except that
v.*'^ closes with a distich.
Isaiah wrote prose as well as poetry, but there is no reason
to believe that he allowed fine poems to dribble out in prose
conclusions. Either {a) vv. 20-27 are due to some disciple of
Isaiah, who recalled the substance, but no longer the form, of the
conclusion of the poem preserved fragmentarily in \\y^^\ or,
more probably, {p) the verses are the work of some late student
of Scripture, who sought, mainly by compiling a cento of Scrip-
ture texts and phrases (see references in the notes that follow),
to give the old poem greater suitability in an age which required
positive comfort for itself as well as a promise that Assyria should
be destroyed.
20. And it shall come to pass in that day] 7^' and often. —
The remnant (hnC^) of Israet] so the remnant of Jacob, v.^i. Cp.
"The remnant (nn«K^) of Israel," Jer 31 7, Mic 2^2, Ezk ii^S;
"of Jacob," Mic 5«^. Cp. also "the remnant (nxt^) of his
people," 1 1"- ^« 285 . «« of Syria," 178 x\.—And the escaped] 42 n.—
Of the House of Jacob] 2* n. ffi here omits the House of — Shall
no more lean for support upon him that smote it] the remnant will
no more trust in foreign powers as the nation had done in days
of old, as when Ahaz in 734 B.C. relied on Assyria (ch. 7), which
smote Judah in 701 b.c. Du.'s epigram, "Ahaz leant for support
on Assyria (2 K 16), but was not smitten ; Hezekiah was smitten,
but did not lean for support on Assyria," is true, for it would be
too odd to describe Assyria as smiting Ahaz when, though at
a ruinous cost, they gave him the support for which he appealed
(Kon. Einleitung, p. 305). The writer is oblivious of the
chronology of Isaiah's age : whether Du.'s detailed explanation
is correct is more doubtful (see Introd. § 26 f.) : according to him,
the writer is applying the old threat against the Assyria of Isaiah's
day to the New Assyria (cp. Ezr 6^2, Ps 83®?), the Seleucid
Empire, which prevailed in his own ; under Alkimus and, later,
John Hyrcanus, the Jewish community, willingly or unwillingly,
rested on the Seleucids and were smitten by them ; freedom
was expected by the pious as soon as Israel rested solely on
204 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Yahweh. — Him that smote it] cp. and ct. 9^2^ — But shall lean
for support upon] 30^2 ^i^, 2 Ch 13^^ 14^® i6'^'*: differently
Mic ^^\—The Holy One of Israef] i* i\.—In truth] \6^ 388 48^
618 : cp. also Jg 9^^ i S 122*. — 21. The remnant shall return]
73 n. — Unto the Mighty God] 9^ n. The v. is a proof of what
has been asserted in v. 20, drawn not by Isaiah from his own
prophecies, but by a late student from Scripture. Whether
to this student the Mighty God meant the Messiah as in 9*, or
God Himself, is not quite clear. — 22. Here the writer seems to
reflect on two prophecies, one foretelling that the people of Israel
shall be as the sand of the sea (Hos 2^ (i^^), cp. Gn 22^^" 32^^), the
other that only a remnant of them will return. In the 2nd cent
B.C., and even a century or two earlier, the Jews, including the
millions living in Egypt and Mesopotamia, had become, what
they were not in Isaiah's day, very numerous ; but there were
among them "many apostates, still more indifferentists : those
loyal to the law, the Ilasidim, the little band who fought for
freedom, were only a little band" (Du.). — 22b, 23. This double
aspect of the future will certainly be realised, for Yahweh has
irrevocably determined a judgment which, taking place in the
midst of the earth, will be universal in its scope ; it will give over-
flowing proof of Yahweh's righteousness (cp. i^'^ 5^^) by working
deliverance of the elect, and accomplishing ''^ the annihilation
already decisively determined" (28^), of the wicked, whether
Israelite or heathen (cp. 59^*'*'2^).
24-27. Sion has nothing to fear from Yahweh's anger — a
point of view radically unlike that commonly taken by Isaiah,
but resembling that of, e.g., 40^*'*. — Therefore thus saith] 30^2^ —
The Lord Yahweh of Hosts] -^.—Fear not] 7* 35* 4110- 1^^- 43!- «
44^. — My people] i' 40^ and often. — Who dwell in Sion] cp. 30^^
— Because of Assyria] see v.^o n. — When he smites with the rod]
V.5 30^1. — And lifts up his stick] v.^ — After the manner of Egypt]
Am 4^*^ : here Assyria whips the Jews, as the Egyptians whipped
Israel in Egypt (Ex 5^*'^^); in v.^^ the stick is used against
Assyria, as it was used against Egypt. — 25. There is no need
for Yahweh's people to fear {y.'^%for within a very little time
(29^^) Yahweh's wrath (DVT, v.**, Dn 8^^) against them will be spent
(Dn 11'*, cp. Is 26^0): the last blows which His righteous anger
against their sin compelled Him to inflict on them with His rod,
" Assyria " (v.*), are now falling ; He is about to scourge Assyria
X. 21-27 205
instead (v.*^). The last clause of v.^ is commonly supposed to
mark the transition from v.^s* to v.*^ : assuming a rather harsh
and improbable ellipsis, J^ may be rendered and my anger (shall
turn) to their destruction ; but the style is most awkward, and the
use of bv and of the 3rd pi. in reference to Assyria very sus-
picious, f^, if the consonants were differently divided, might
also mean, and my anger against the world shall be at an end :
but this, too, would be awkward ; for " the world " in that case
must exclude Assyria and refer only to that part which is en-
slaved by Assyria (cp. 14^^. But if we omit hlD f»y, against the
world, as a gloss, what remains is an excellent parallel to the
previous clause ; for the two vbs. nh^ and DDD in parallelism, cp.
16* and (reading ion) La 3^2. — 26. And Yahweh of Hosts will
brandish over him\ i.e. over Assyria : "niy, brandish, as 2 S 23^ —
A scourge] 28^^ — As when Midian was smitten] 9^ n., Ps 83^^^.
—At the rock of'Oreb] Jg 725, cp. Ps 83I2 (M),—And his stick over
the sea — he will raise it after the manner of Egypt] Ex 14^^: see
above, v. 2* n. — 27. After the opening formula (cp. v.20), if ^n*
be read for biv\\ an excellent distich (4 : 4), a variation of 142^
(cp. 9^ n.), is recovered —
His burden shall depart from upon thy shoulder,
And his yoke shall cease from (resting) upon thy neck.
The remaining words of the v. (jDK' *:BD fjy) have been slightly
mutilated and wrongly detached from v. 28. The attempts to
interpret J^ as it stands are the best proof that it is corrupt : the
last sentence can, of course, be translated and a yoke will be
ruined because of oil, or fat (5^ n.) ; these words, it is said, con-
tain a comparison of Judah to an animal grown so fat that the
yoke is broken by the counter pressure of its fat neck, the pur-
pose of the comparison being to indicate that deliverance is to
come from within as well as from without (Del.). For other
explanations neither better nor worse, see Ges. and Di.
22. 318" . . . r\'>7\'' DK] Dr. §§ 136, 143.-103;] (&. oy.— u . . . nxr] cp.
Din nxB'jn, Lv 5* : see BDB 88a (bottom).— |v'?3] Dt 28<» f (in a different
sense). — pnn] the Kal meaning, to determine, occurs again only in Job 14' ;
but cp. the Niphal in v.^ ; and see Dn q^^'- i i^, which are, in other respects
also, phraseologically connected with this passage. — np'x^i rjor] ace. after verba
copiae: G-K. 1170.— ^3. mK3s m.r] (!R om.— 24. -jntt] ffi^ om.— nD3'] G-K.
58^, «.— 25. nyiD] 16" 24« 29"t.— dj;t] Che. proposes TDyi ; cp. the parallel 'BK :
but perhaps 'SN arose by dittography from on' r\H : see next n, — Dn'^an ^y 'ijK]
206 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
a few MSS read on'Von, which would be synonymous with Dn'Vnn f ; for n'^an
from vn^ would mean a wearing out, destruction, hv is used to express
direction towards, ** not common except in the sense against " (BDB 757a) ; but
examples of the use of hv such as Ca 7^^, 2 Ch 20^^, cited in BDB 757^ (under
7c {c)), are really very different from that commonly assumed here. The
obvious meaning if it were suitable in the context would be my anger at
(roused by) their destruction." Luzzatto proposed tipc, Vag Vy *9ij ; this is
improbable (see above) : on the other hand, on' 'Ski oyt n^ai gives all that
seems to be wanted ; San Vy was perhaps the note of some reader who took the
verbs nSa and DOn in their other sense to be fulfilled, and explained the wrath
as that which would affect the whole world in the last judgment. — 26. aits']
possibly, through similarity of sound, for v>2V (v.^). (& omits. — D'n hu inoDi
wtJ'Ji] rather poor Hebrew. Winckler {ATUntersuchungen, 177) suggests
vw> d.tVj; ; but this introduces the suspicious pi. suffix : Marti, ^v vVy.
Perhaps the corruption goes deeper, fflr renders koX 6 dvfxbs avrov ry oSy ry
KarcL dakaaaav. — 27. Sam] this is an early error for Sin', which is parallel to
niD' and completes the rhythm of the distich 4 : 4. The emendation is due to
W. R. Smith (Journal of Philology, xiii. 62 f.). — pv 'jsd '^y] yields no sense :
see above and phil. n. on p. 209.
X. 27C-32. — A Dramatic IdylL
The prevailing rhythm in vv. *'"*** is 2 : 2 ; in vv.*^^"'^ the rhythm becomes
more uncertain, and the text at the same time shows signs of corruption (see
phil. n. ). The poem is probably defective : perhaps two lines at the ban-
ning and four of the last strophe have been lost.
27c He hath gone up from Pene * Rimmon,*
28 He hath fallen on 'Ayyath j ^Hl
He hath passed through Migron, ^"'
At Michmas he depositeth his baggage;
2* * He hath ' passed over the ravine,
(In) Geba is *his* night quarters.
Ramah hath trembled,
Gibeah of Saul hath fled.
^ Give a shrill cry, . . . . !
daughter of Gallim I
Give heed, Laishah !
Answer her, Anathoth !
*^ Madmenah hath run away,
The inhabitants of Gebim have sought refuge.
«2 To-day
He will swing his hand.
Towards the Mount of the daughter of §ion,
The hill of Jerusalem.
I
X. 26-32 207
The poet assumes the standpoint of one who is in Jerusalem
on the morrow after an invader, marching from the north, has
entered Judaean territory and encamped within a few miles of the
capital, ready to strike at it the next day.
First, the invader's march is described in a succession of short
telling clauses, w.27-29: from Pene Rimmon, some ten miles
north of Jerusalem, he has advanced through *Ai and Migron to
Michmas ; leaving his heavy baggage there, he has without delay
descended into the deep Wady Suwenit below Michmas, crossed
its bottom and made the steep ascent to Geba*, where at less
than six miles from Jerusalem he has encamped for the night.
This concludes the description of the march, for in w.^^'^-^^ the
subject of the verb is no longer the invader, and the towns
mentioned do not lie on any single route from Geba* to
Jerusalem. The object of w,^^-^^ is to indicate, partly by
descriptive tenses, partly by imperatives addressed to the
terrified towns, the terror of the country between Geba' and
Jerusalem as news reaches them the same evening of the near
presence of the hostile army. The poem closes with the
inevitable yet ominous inference. To-day the invader will fall
on Jerusalem itself, v.^.
Many have supposed that the poem ends not at v.**, but at v.** ; in that
case Isaiah's purpose in the whole would be to describe the invading army,
whether Syro-Ephraimitish or, more probably, Assyrian, advancing right up
to Jerusalem, only to fall there before the unseen power of Yahweh. But
this is improbable : for (i) the rhythm in vv.*^'- is different ; (2) the figurative
language of vv.*^'* has no natural connection with the simple and sustained
literalism of w.*'"* ; cp. Cheyne, Introd. p. 56.
If the poem concludes with v.*^, it threatens Jerusalem
without any alleviating promise, and is therefore inconsistent
with Isaiah's attitude at the time of the Syro-Ephraimitish war
(c. 7) ; but it may have been written by him later, in expectation
of some assault by Assyria, though it is improbable that Assyria
would ever have followed the line of march indicated.
Isaiah's authorship has been questioned (Du., Marti) on the grounds of
(i) the numerous paronomasias: cp. Mic i^-ia . ^2) the special emphasis
on Jerusalem ; (3) the objective character of the description which scarcely
suggests a prophet living in the midst of the circumstances. Against (2), cp.
i^ n., and note that vv.'^'^^ show feeling for the country as well as the city.
The number of plays on words, or paronomasias, has been exaggerated ; the
208 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
supposed play on the name of Michmas, for example, rests on a very question-
able etymology. i
27c-29b. The Invader's March. — Be hath gone up] ^
a yoke, see phil. n., and above on v.^''^ — Pen^ Rimmon'] Du.'s
conjecture for pene shemen (J^). The name means Face of
Rimmon\ cp. Peniel, Face of God\ the deity Rimmon is
mentioned in 2 K 5^^. The modern Rammon lies about 3
miles N.N.E. of Michmas. — 28. *AyyatK\ probably the same as
Ai, which lay to the E. of and near Bethel (Gn 1 2^, Jos 7^), and
consequently a little to the N. of Michmas. It is identified by
some with Der Diwan, about 3 miles N. of Michmas. — Migron\
obviously lay N. of Michmas, perhaps on the site of the modern
Makrfin. W. R. Smith,* indeed, argued that the Migron
mentioned in i S 14^, which must have lain South of Michmas,
was intended here ; and that a detachment of the invaders fell
upon it and secured it before the main body attempted the
difficult passage of the Wady es-Suwenit : but the rendering of
3 nay by to fall upon is not justified. — At Michmas] mod.
Muhmas, 7 J miles N. of Jerusalem. It lies at an elevation of
1990 feet, distant about 2 miles, and separated by the deep Wady
es-Suwenit, from Geba* (2220 feet), which stands on the top of
the opposite slope. To avoid the difficulty of transport over this
troublesome piece of country, the invader deposits his heavy
baggage at Michmas. — 29. He] so (!& ; J^ they^ but note the 3rd
sing, in other sentences in J^. — Has crossed the ravine] lit. has
passed the passage (mayc), or crossed the crossing, viz. of the wady
between Michmas and Geba*; this crossing in i S 132^ is called
" thepassage, or crossing (i^VD), of Michmas." The passage (nayo)
of Jabbok (Gn 32^3) was a real ford ; but the Wady es-Suwenit is
often dry: the present writer found it so on Feb. 25, 1904: cp.
Dalman in ZDFV xxv'ni. 163 f. Ravine is not a strict equivalent
of nnayo, but it is used here in order to summon up the picture
which the phrase would recall to a Hebrew familiar with the
district : (B TrapeXtva-erai ^dpayya retains the picture ; but RV,
they are gone over the pass^ suggests an ascent, a passage of the
top, and a descent, whereas what is actually described is a steep
descent, a passage of the bottom, and a steep ascent — (/«) Gebct
are his night-quarters] see phil. n. J^ might best be rendered
Gebci be our night-quarters, a dramatic cry of the army as it
* fPh., 1884, p. 63: cp. Driver, Isaiah^ p. 72; Stenning, in Z>^ ii. 169.
m
X. 27-32 209
climbs the southern slope of the valley to Geba*, which lies
within six miles of Jerusalem.
29C-31. The alarm of the country-side. — Ramah'] is
er-Ram, 35 minutes along the crest of the hill W.S.W. from
Geba* (Baed. Pai. 2^2>).—Gibeah of Sauf] probably Tell el-FOl,
the site of which satisfies the requirements of Jg 19^2-16^ j g io2-7.
10-": see EBL and DB, s.v. Gibeah.—I^W el-FQl lies about 2 J
miles S.S.E. of er-Ram, about 3 miles S.S.W. of Geba*, and
about I J miles N.W. of *Anata (Anathoth). — 30. Three or four
towns between Geba* and Jerusalem are dramatically invited to
participate in the lamentation which the approach of the invaders
occasions. — Gallim and Laishah (which is scarcely el-*Isawiyyeh,
between *Anata and Jerusalem) are not identified : but cp.
"Palti, the son of Laish, which was of Gallim," i S 25*^ — Answer
her, 'Anathoth^ or, less probably, O poor one, 'Anathoth; in
either case there is a paronomasia — *aniah 'anathoth, or *aniyyah
'anathoth. *Anathoth is the mod. 'An^ti, 2 J miles from Jerusalem
and on the road that runs from Geba* to Jerusalem through
yizmeh ; another road from Geba* to Jerusalem ran through er-
Rim (Ramah). — 31. Madmenah and Gebim are both unknown
cities. — Have sought refuge\ for themselves and their belongings ;
cp. Ex 9^®, where the obj. of ryn is expressed, and Jer 4® 6^,
where, as here, it is omitted : cp. also the use of Kal in 30*, and
the noun ny» in 1 7'.
32. Assault on Jerusalem is imnjinent. — The text is in
several respects uncertain : see phil. n. To-day is the morning
after the night spent by the invaders at Geba* (v.^^) ; speaking
dramatically, as one risen early on that day and in receipt of the
news which has already thrown the places between Geba* and
Jerusalem into alarm, the poet draws the conclusion : To-day the
foe will take up its position before the walls of Jerusalem. — In
No^ the text is doubtful, and the site of Nob uncertain. Neh
1 1^2 mentions this place next to *Anathoth, and as occupied by
Benjamites: 1 S 2i2(i) 22®- ^^ f fails, even if the text be correct,
to define the site more closely. Mainly on the ground of the
present passage, it has been located at some point on the high
ground to the N. of, and over-looking, Jerusalem. See, further,
Nob, in DB,
27. joty '3DD Sy] 1^ yields no sense : see p. 206. ^^—xh^; cp. 33 = n33 in
Phoenician inscriptions, e.g. CIS i. 4' = Cooke, NSI 6^ : cp. ib. 33^ For 'J£D
VOL. I. — 14
2IO COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
jots', W. R. Smith {J Ph. xiii. 63 ff.) proposed mt? jssd, the waster {i.e. Assyria)
from the North ; Du. JQ"i '33D, which is easier and preferable (see above). (&
airb Twv (bfitap {//iQv. — 28. ^y K3] of hostile approach : so Gn 342^, i S 12^*,
Jg 18" {v./. ny).— n'y] = »«% n'V (Neh ii^i, i Ch 7^) with retention of the old
fem. n. The position of n^y between Michmas and Bethel points to identifica-
tion also with 'yn. dSt €l$ t^v t6\iv ^Ayyai (of which koX ij^ei els ' kyYO-f' in v.^
may be a variant) should represent 'yn "^vt^, which might be a text conflate of
two variants of n'y. — Tp£3' bODD*?] many editions have tddd^, which is incorrect.
It is very questionable whether troDD means store-place ; odd in Dt 32^ is
probably an error for 033. In Jer 36^® 3721 ^pan, to deposit ^ is followed by 5 ;
with 7 the vb. may mean to the town of Michmas he entrusts his baggage
(Ges.), though the person to whom a deposit is entrusted is elsewhere intro-
duced by T ^y (i K 14"), or T3 (Ps 31'), or nK (Jer 40').— 29. nny] ffl^
7ra/!)eXei;(rerai = n3y, or perhaps rather nny (note v'pa preceding). The 3rd
sing. pf. is right. — ^h p^D yaj] 13^ if correct is either \i) for us: the pi. in
such a dramatic cry would not be impossible in spite of the prevalent singu-
lars ; or (2) 3rd pi. pf. of pV, {the night-quarters where) they have spent the
night ; but this would give a pointless redundance, and a 3rd pi. instead of
the 3rd sing., which is used of the invader throughout the poem. More
probably "u^ pSo =13^3^0 has arisen through dittography from \h^. — ^30. ♦^nst
n*?!?] double subj. : G-K. 144OT. (!& omits the words ; but possibly even |^
is incomplete, the present line of three accents being a mutilation of a distich
2 : 2. — D*^3*na] perhaps n3 = n'3, then for the equivalence of names with and
without B*a, see HPN 127 £.—32. Qvn -ny] this very day (RV) would be a
suitable, if it were a less questionable, rendering : niy is nowhere else used
with the sense presupposed in it. Dr. in BDB 728^ renders "j/zV/ to-day
(such is his haste) will he tarry in Nob." But what day is intended ? If the
day on which the invaders reach Geba', the clause seems inconsistent with
Geba' being the night-quarters ; but if the morrow is intended, the clause
becomes rather feeble, for Jerusalem is but a couple of hours' march from
Geba'. Other established meanings of niy seem equally unsuitable here : for
example, stilly as he has been doing, will he tarry ; again will he tarry ; in
Noby mx)reover (as well as in other places), will he tarry. Probably iiy is a
corruption : it is absent from C5, and ly may have been a dittograph of Tyn=
'W^'n at the end of v.". — 333] perhaps corrupt : see above and Che. EBi. 3430.
(!Er iv 6d(^. — ncyS] he must tarry : Dr. § 204. But perhaps noy should be
restored, unless the corruption of the text goes deeper. — \y «]£313'] the Polel of
»)13 occurs here only; the Hiphil used more or less similarly occurs in li"
19^', Zee 2**, Job 31''^, Sir 12^*. — '\r\\ is commonly explained as the ace. of
direction (cp. G-K. 118/"); but the omission of Vy (cp. references in last n.)
is suspicious. — jvx n'3 nn] the K®tib gives an unparalleled phrase : K*re
's na nn as i6^ — nysa] CK ol povvol=T\:}2i. The phrase 0'"?^^ '3 does not
occur again. — The accumulation of unusual, and in some cases suspicious,
phenomena render it probable that the text of v.^ has suffered. It is unsafe,
therefore, to assume a change of rhythm (cp. Di.); the last two clauses are
2 : 2, the dominant rhythm of the poem.
X. 28-34 AND XI. 1-8 211
X. 33, 34. — The Fall of the Forest
V."** is of two accents; •*•• "^ of four, but perhaps \\\nr\ (cp. v.**) in the
one and Snaa (see phil. n.) in the other should be omitted. The original
rhythm was then 3 : 3 with the variant 3 : 2 in v.**^ *.
*8 Behold the Lord Yahwch of Hosts
Is lopping off the branches with a terrible crash ;
And those that have grown high will be hewn down,
And the lofty will be brought low.
** And he will strike away the thickets of the forest with iron,
And Lebanon with *its* majestic (cedars) shall falL
Under the figure of a forest of lofty trees felled by the woodman,
this brief fragment describes the approaching destruction of some
people that have provoked Yahweh's majesty by their pride (cp.
2iiff-).
The fragment, though not the original conclusion of w.27-82
(see p. 207), may have been placed here by the compiler in
order to suggest that any enemy approaching the sacred city
would perish. The figure of a forest occurs in w.^*^* 1** ; but
there destruction is by fire; for destruction by felling, cp. Dn
^^11. (i4)flf.^ Zee II*, and especially the elaborate description of
Assyria under the figure of a cedar in Ezk 31.
34. Thickets of the forest] 9^^. — With * its * majestic (cedars)]
cp. 2^% Zee 11*, and see phil. n. ; J§ is commonly understood to
mean Ify a Majestic one, viz. Yahweh.
33. mNB] ^«r6 .TnB: with the Knib, cp. niKS, Ezk 17* 3i»'« 8. m. _
n2<nyD3] this derivative from \^]) (2^"' *^) occurs here only : Du. conjectures
n!<yD3, with an axe. — 34. 'jpii] Piel, the subj. being Yahweh, or Niph., the
pi. subj. following the pred. (G-K. i45<7).— mna . . . ^naa] these should
be parallel terms, but they are not : hence some substitute for thk the name
of an implement such as mnp or V'ra (Ges.). It is better to read v^^tt (cp.
(& ffifp rots i\{/T]\ois) and omit Sn33 as a gloss (note the rhythm). So Che.,
Marti.
XI. 1-8. — The Righteous Ruler of the Stock ofjesse^ and the
Return of the Golden Age.
Apart from the first three words of v.", which are a dittograph, |^ contains
23 lines. It is argued in the n. on v.** that one of these (v.**) is intrusive
and one (v.'*') misplaced ; the 22 lines that remain fall into eleven distichs.
An alternative theory retains v.'** and inserts from 65^ a line which there
accompanies v.'" : this would bring up the number of lines to 24.
212
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
The distichs (3:3, or 4 : 4) are mostly well-balanced and marked by
great regularity of parallelism. Some apparent exceptions are probably due
to textual corruption: see notes on vv.****^'*; in v.^ read n^nn (see n.) or
makkeph mn^-riNT, the two words forming a single idea. But vv.'*- *• and ^
are two distichs 4 : 3.
Whether we reduce the number of lines to 22, or raise them to 24, or
keep them at 23, the main divisions of sense do not give strophes of exactly
equal lengths. The first strophe contains 6, the second 8, the third 8, 9, or 10
lines according to the view taken of vv.*' and '^°. If the poem once possessed
complete strophic regularity, it most probably consisted of three strophes each
containing four distichs. In that case it is probably the opening distich of
the poem that has been lost. At present the poem opens with Waw Conv.
and the pf. : yet so also does 2'.
Du. obtains strophic regularity in another way : he finds four strophes,
each of six lines, ending with vv.^- *• * and ^ respectively. But this division
involves several improbabilities : (i) v.° is torn away from the description of
the king, of which it forms a part, to be coupled with the first half of the
description of the beasts ; (2) the description of the beasts is divided into two
strophes ; and (3) in order to eke out w.'** into six lines, v.*'' is very mistakenly
(see phil. n. ) divided into two, with the result that the suckling playing about
the serpent's hole shares a distich with the lion eating straw, while his true
mate, the weaned child, stands apart in a separate distich examining the
basilisk's eye.
^ And there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of
Jesse,
And a scion from his roots shall bear fruit;
2 And there shall rest upon him the spirit of Yahweh,
The spirit of wisdom and discernment,
The spirit of counsel and might,
The spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Yahweh.
He will not judge by that which his eyes see,
Nor by that which his ears hear will he decide;
But he will judge the needy with righteousness.
And decide with equity for the poor of the earth,
And he will smite the ruthless with the rod of his mouth,
And with the breath of his lips will he slay the wicked.
And righteousness will be the 'girdle' about his waist,
And faithfulness the waist-cloth around his loins.
^ And the wolf shall dwell as a guest with the lamb.
And the leopard shall have the same lair with the kid;
'■'^ And the lion shall eat straw like the ox,
^"^ And the calf and the young lion * will graze ' together ;
With a little child acting as their driver.
XI. 1-8 213
^* And the cow and the bear shall be 'companions to one
another,*
Together shall their young make their lair;
8 And the suckling shall play over the hole of the asp,
And over the dwelling (?) of the viper shall the weaned
child * trip about ' (?).
The poem predicts the restoration of the Jewish monarchy in
the person of a king sprung from the family of Jesse, the father
of David, who will be equipped by Yahweh's spirit for all the
duties of a righteous ruler, w.^**. Thus equipped, he will in
virtue of his wisdom discern what is right, and in virtue of
his might achieve it, securing for the weak what is due to them,
and smiting down the powerful who do wrong. All that he does
will be done in righteousness and faithfulness, vv.^-*. In his
days the conditions of Paradise will return ; the beasts will no
longer be at enmity with one another and with men, but all will
live together in peace and friendship, w.^
The thought of the poet is concentrated on the future of the
Jews, though he sees it in the light of conditions (w.^-^) which
will presumably be universal and not limited to Palestine. The
larger thought, too, of the world-wide government of the king
breaks through in v.*, if the words of the earth be original.
Of the conditions which immediately precede the reign of
this king he says nothing directly, nor gives any indication how
soon the future which he predicts may be expected. It is
possible that an opening distich has been lost (see above, p. 212)
which may have resembled 9^ ^^^ in its tenor.
The editor, whether Isaiah himself (Di. p. 104), or another [e.g, Marti),
who is responsible for the present arrangement of Isaiah chs. io''-i2, may
indeed have intended that this reign was to begin when the world-power has
been destroyed and the destruction of everything opposed to God within
Israel and without (lo^^*) has been accomplished. But Di., no less than
Du., argued that ii^*- is not the immediate continuation of lo""**; and in
spite of Kit's attempt to prove the contrary, this remains clear (see above on
lo""**). It is not even probable that lo^'*, which is certainly not the original
continuation of lo^"^, contains the opening distich, or distichs, of ii*''^' :
10", indeed, if we omit "with iron," is a distich similar in rhythm and
parallelistic structure to ii^*^, but by itself it forms a less probable beginning
than 11^ On the other hand, 10** is less similar to ii^"® and is still no good
opening ; moreover, the elaborate metaphors of lo"*** contrast with the
general literalness of 11^-* : the figure in 11* is simple, and ii**^ is, of course.
214 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
intended literally, not metaphorically. Finally, the antithesis sought between
lo^'* and 11^ — the Assyrian cedar forest is smitten down, the tree of Jesse is
rejuvenated — is anything but inevitable — ("unverkennbar," Di.), and is
certainly not suggested by the order of the words. Had the writer of ii*
been the author also of the antithesis attributed to him by those who make
11^ the immediate continuation of lo**, it is probable that he would have
written KS* npn v* yjJDi.
It follows that ll^"® must be judged by itself and not in connection
with I0»-".
If the most obvious is the correct interpretation of v.^, the
poem was written after 586 b.c. (see on v.^). A downward limit
of date is fixed by the quotation in 6525. Like 9^-^ the poem might
well have been written towards the end of the Exile when men's
minds were turning towards Restoration, and when some may
have been setting high hopes on Zerubbabel, of the stock of
Jesse, who immediately after the Return certainly focussed such
hopes upon himself (Hag., Zech.).
Apart from the historical presuppositions of v.*, which point more
decisively than those of Q*"* to an exilic or post-exilic date, the evidence is
no more conclusive than in the case of 9^**. The language is certainly
compatible with a post-exilic date, and the occurrence of the three words yu,
ion, nw in v.* is even better explained by it than by an earlier date. For
the significance of the ideas, reference must be made to the commentary.
Among those who assign the poem to Isaiah, much difference of opinion
prevails as to the period of his life to which it belongs. For the most part it
is connected with lo""'*, and simply on the ground of that supposed connection
assigned to the same period: see, e.g., Dr. LOT^ 210 f., where the date
701 B.C. is suggested, and allusion is made (with references) to other theories
placing the prophecy early in Sargon's reign (W. R. Smith, Prophets'^, 296 ff.),
or at the end of Sargon's reign. Earlier writers thought of the reign of Ahaz
(Vitringa). Finally, Du. groups ii^** with 2^-^ 32*'' as one of Isaiah's
** swan-songs" written in extreme old age, in the reign of Manasseh, for the
private use of his disciples and not for publication.
I, 2. The origin and endowments of the Future
King". — I. The poem opens with a prediction of the restoration
of the Davidic monarchy. This is expressed figuratively. Jesse,
the father of David, is compared to a root from which there
had grown a tree — the line of Jewish monarchs descended from
David ; this tree has been cut down \ but the roots remain in
the earth and a mere stump above ground, />. the throne of
David has fallen, but the family of David survives ; as from the
stump of a tree that has been felled there may shoot forth new
growth (Job i4''-^, cp. Is 6^^), so while the family of David sur-
XI. I, 2 215
vives, hope remains that some member of it may re-establish
the monarchy, and thus, in the terms of the figure, become the
new shoot and green growth from the old roots. What the
opening distich of the poem asserts is that this hope will be
actually realised. The revival, and not the fall of the tree, is
the subject of prediction. The fall of the tree belongs to the
past ; the stump is an existing fact familiar to the poet and his
audience. Thus this v. presupposes a period when no Davidic
king was reigning. The necessary inference is that the poem
was written some time after 586 B.C. This inference can only
be avoided by adopting less natural and obvious interpreta-
tions : thus (i) Di. considers that the implication of the figure
is that each successive king from David downwards was a tree
sprung from the root and stump of Jesse; by means of an
improbable figure Isaiah would then be expressing the rather
jejune idea that as there had already been a dozen kings or
more descended from Jesse, one of whom was reigning at the
present moment, so there would be another; (2) Du. sees in
the passage a prediction that the Messiah will not spring from
David, but as being himself a new David will spring from
another branch of the house of Jesse, in the terms of the figure
from another of the roots (^plural) — an unparalleled and most
improbable idea ; moreover, this interpretation does not explain
the assumption that the tree of David has already fallen. On
this Du. says that the expression yw, stocky indicates that before
the Messianic age the Dynasty will suffer ill. — A shoot] iDn, Pr
14^ t« In Aramaic, early and late, and Assyrian the word meant
sceptre (see phil. n.). — The stu7tip'\ 40^^, Job 14't. The word
yn is derived from a root meaning to cut, (so c j^ commonly) ;
in view of this, of the parallel here, and of the parallel and the
context in Job, the word probably meant primarily the part
(above ground) left after felling. In 40^ it seems rather to be
used of the bole of a growing, newly planted tree; cp. the
New Hebrew usage : see Levy, NHB, s.v, — The stump of Jesse']
this phrase well reflects the fact that the Jewish monarchy is no
more, though the family, from which it sprang, survives; "the
stump of David" would have reflected this less clearly and
might more appropriately have been used if the monarchy had
merely lost power and glory as at the Disruption. — A scion]
2l6 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
14^^ (?) 60*^, Dn 11^, Sir 40^5 (margin). The word "iVi comes
probably from the root which in Arabic (^*a)) means to be
fresh and beautiful^ and, of the foliage of a tree, to become green ;
it was presumably applied to vigorous growth from a tree,
whether as here and in 60^1 directly from the root, or from some
other part; it is used in NH of withies -y cp. IVJ i>3n, a rope of
withies \ D^nV3 ^^D, a basket made of withies (Levy, NHB iii. 431^)-
— Shall bear fruit'] if the text is right, the 2nd line of the distich
goes beyond the first — not only will a new tree grow from the
old root, but it will yield fruit ; not only will the Davidic monarchy
be restored, but the new king will prosper (cp. Ps i^). But
ma"* may be an error for ms^ shall sprout forth (cp. Job 14®),
and the two lines throughout synonymously parallel. — 2. The
king will be a man on whom the spirit of Yahweh rests
(Nu ii^^'*, cp. 2 K 2^*, Nu 11^'' n.), and therefore fit for ex-
ceptional achievements; as the spirit gives the exceptional
craftsman (Ex 31^ 35*^)> or the warrior (Jg 6^ 11^ 132*
146' 19), or the prophet (Nu ii^s^*. Is 61I), or the interpreter of
dreams (Gn 41^^), the power to do or be something beyond the
ordinary (cp. 2 K 2^^), so it gives kingliness to the king
(1 S 1 6^^^*). King and people often seemed to the prophets to
forget this, and in consequence to trust in " flesh " rather than
in "spirit" (31^); but the Messianic age will be distinguished
by the outpouring of the spirit (32^^ Jl ^^' (2^^^')) on all men,
and, in particular, the point with which alone the present passage
is concerned, on the Messiah. The spirit of Yahweh settles
upon the king as a spirit of or, as we should say, imparting,
wisdom and discernment {c,"^. Ex 31^), a capacity to discern what
rightly belongs to the king's office and to the right discharge
of it, and to detect the right in difficult circumstances (v.^, cp.
I K 3^"^- 28). The spirit is also one of counsel and mighty i.e.
the king receives power not only to discern the right, but to
execute it, to secure for the weak their due, and to punish and
put to death the guilty, however powerful (v.*). By the spirit
of Yahweh the king becomes a wonderful, or exceptional.
Counsellor and Mighty One (9^). In spite of 36^, it is very
questionable whether the king is here represented as a great
soldier. Finally, the spirit makes him careful for the will of
God and a true worshipper of Yahweh, and consequently
XI. 2-5 217
righteous, v.', cp. Jer 23^'- : he is possessed of knowledge and
fear of Yahweh : knowledge is here not knowledge of his craft,
as in Ex 31®, an idea sufficiently covered by v. 2^, but knowledge
of God which shows itself in care for the poor and weak : cp.
Jer 22^®. 5E gives to the spirit of Yahweh the specialised sense
of the spirit of prophecy — an interpretation which made the
passage a convenient proof, though it is certainly not the
ultimate source of the idea, of "the seven spirits which are
before the throne of God " (Rev i*) ; for the idea, see Schottgen
Horae Talmudicae ; for its origin, cp. Gunkel, Schopfung u, Chaos^
pp. 294-302; KAT^ 624 f. — The opening words of 3 J^ are
obviously the result of dittography, or of the intrusion into
the text of variants (see phil. n.). As they stand they are
meaningless : literally translated they read, and his enjoyment of
the scent of the fear of Yahweh, or, assuming an awkward sup-
pression of the copula, and the scent that he enjoys is the fear
of Yahweh, which is paraphrased by RV into " and his delight
shall be in the fear of the Lord " ; i.e. himself God-fearing,
he will delight to find the fear of God in others. — The real
sense of the phrase used in fl^ is clear in Ex 30^, " Whosoever
makes anything like it (this sweet incense), to enjoy the scent of it,
shall be cut off from his people"; cp. Lv 26^^. Since the
feasts and solemn assemblies of the Hebrews were thick with
the fumes of sacrificial victims, it was quite appropriate to say,
" I will not enjoy the scent of them (Am 5^1) " ; but " the fear
of Yahweh," which is here made the object of the vb., was not
a smell. Another meaning that has frequently been tortured
out of the words is this, He will scent out the fear of God, re-
cognise at once the God-fearing; but in this sense n^n takes
the simple ace. (Job 39^^).
3-5. The character of the king and his method of
government, which will spring from his spiritual endowments
(v.^). Here there is certainly no hint that the king will be a
warrior : he reigns after war has been abolished (cp. 9*^). The
king will possess something of the wisdom of God; he will
know all that goes on in his country (cp. 2 S 14^^), and will be
able like God (i S iS'^), or a prophet of God (i S 9^^), to probe
things to the bottom (cp. Pr 25^), not being misled by deceitful
appearances or lying words, but reading men's hearts. En
49*, which may be a paraphrase of the v., gets near to the
21 8 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
meaning — "He will judge the secret things, and no one will
be able to utter a lying word before him." — 4. As the perversion
of justice by which the poor and weak suffered was a constant
feature in actual life (i^^- 23 io2), so it is natural that the
securing of the rights of these classes becomes a permanent
feature of the ideal ruler, cp. Ps 72. — The 7ieedy. . . the poor] lo^.
1^ here has ''13^, the humble-minded, meek; but the parallel
suggests that this is an error for ^^:v ; the two forms were liable
to be confused: see Dr. DB iv. 20. — Of the earth] not required
by the parallelism and perhaps an addition. It indicates the world-
wide sway of the king (cp. 9^); for the rendering of the land*
is improbable. — 4c. d. The Messianic age is not to be an age
free from sin (cp. 6520 32^); the conception is thus entirely
different from the later conception of heaven. But the wicked
will not as now sin on with impunity: the king will make
use of the divine power given to him, to smite such sin-
ners dead with a word; cp. 9^^^ n., Ac 51-10. — The ruthless]
reading py (13II n.) for pN (fl^(3r), earth or land. Earth
cannot by itself mean the godless world (Del.). A real parallel
to ytn, the wicked, of the next line is required, and such is pV ;
cp. Job 1520 27!^: note also the connections in which pj; is
used in 2920, Ps 3785^ Jer 1521. — The rod of his mouth] i.e. by a
mere word: see above. Cp. the two-edged sword proceeding
from the mouth in Rev i^*. More remote parallels to the idea
of speech as a deadly, cutting instrument may be found in
Jer 1 818, Ps 575(*>. — The breath of his lips] this also means
speech; cp. Ps 33^ "the word of the Lord . . . the breath
of his mouth." — The wicked] the Hebrew term is sing., but, of
course, generic in meaning. Nevertheless it is interpreted indi-
vidually of Antichrist by 3^, " He will kill the wicked Armillos,"
and by Paul in 2 Th 2^. — 5* The description of the king's char-
acter closes with a figure derived from the custom of girding up
the clothes before undertaking any active work : whatever he
undertakes is undertaken in righteousness and faithfulness : cp.
plV and ni^OK of man, Hab 2*, i S 262^, and of Yahweh as
King, Ps 96^^. — It corresponds closely to the justice and right-
eousness of 9^
6-8. The return of the golden age. — Nature will be
♦Du., Che., Box.
XI. 4-6 219
transformed in the days of this king ; the golden age of the past
will return ; wild beasts will no longer prey on one another, or
be hurtful to men. The harmlessness of the wild beasts is
clearly connected in v.'^*' with the expectation that in the
age to come they will cease to be carnivorous and become
graminivorous, as they, like man (ct. after the Flood, Gn 9^), were
first created (Gn i^^); the same idea may be, but is much less
clearly suggested by y.^% in a passage that depends on the
present (65^^) ; this harmlessness of the beasts is rather ineptly
heightened by making the serpent continue to eat dust, which
was not a feature of the golden age, but part of the curse that fell
on the serpent. For security from the present hurtful habits of
wild beasts in pictures of the future, see Hos 2^0 (is) ; less genially
expressed, Ezk 34^^'^^, cp. Lv 26^. The idea was wide-spread;
Virgil's use of it (£c/. iv. 21 f., v. 60) is famous, and many other
parallels are cited by Ges. i. 425 f. It is far less probable that
Virgil is dependent on Isaiah than that both Hebrew prophet and
Latin poet are common users of an ancient oriental idea; cp.
Gressmann, 193 flf., and Conway's Essay in Mayor, Fowler and
Conway's VirgiPs Messianic Eclogue.
6a. b. Wolves will no longer devour lambs, nor leopards kids,
but these strong and ferocious beasts will dwell together with the
others and under their protection ! They will be gerim (14^ n. :
cp. NumberSy p. 175) of these domestic animals. — 6c. The calf
and the young lion\ against the analogy of 6a. b. 7a. c ^^^p^ y sa. bj^ j^
adds a second domestic beast, the fatling (i^^ n.) ; apart from ffi
it would be fairly obvious that this third term has driven out, or
is a corruption of, a verb : the young of oxen and lions will graze
on the same pastures. Probably v.'^*' once formed the first line
of this distich, which then resembled the next (vJ** ^) in mention-
ing the two kinds — the wild and the domestic — in the first line,
their young in the second. In this case v.**, which introduces
the little child fearlessly driving young lions as well as calves, was
supplied by some annotator, probably from a parallel poem. If
these suppositions are correct, the marked parallelism of terms in
the two lines of each distich, which characterises most of the
poem in any case, would be maintained without break ; the one
monostich (v.''^*') which at present stands isolated among the
distichs would disappear ; and the poet would complete at once
what he had to say of lions, instead of introducing the bears
220 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
between the young lion and the lion. — 7* After the males (v.^an
perhaps "^^ see last n.), the females — cow and she-bear — (m, fem.,
as 2 K 2^*). — Shall be companions to one another] as Lagarde per-
ceived, one of the two D's at the beginning of n3''y"inn (cp. Pr
22^*) has accidentally dropped out, leaving in f^ nrynn, shall feed,
which by itself is pointless ; for, since the cow as well as the bear
is mentioned, the point cannot be that the bear will graze instead
of continuing to hunt (Di.). — 'jc = 65^5 ; this line should precede
v.^*: see above. Like stalled animals such as the ox (i^), the
lion will eat chopped straw (Gn 2425- 32^ Jg 19I9, i K 5^). — 8.
Not only with one another, but with man will animals, now hurt-
ful, be friends: the point is expressed by picturing the safety
with which the weakest members of the human race, babies
under two or three years of age, will approach with safety the
most malignant of beasts (Gn 3^^), the serpent, and make its
haunts their favourite playground. — The weaned child\ is the child
just weaned (cp. 28', Ps 131^), i.e. two or three years old (2 Mac
72'). — Shall play about] or take its delight : in any case the vb.
suggests more than the mere fact of playing with immunity,
it implies delight. Cp. the use of the vb. {WW)i or noun
(D^yc^j;t5'), in 57 6612, jg^ ^i^o, Pr S^o^- : in Syriac the vb. is used
of diverting oneself with hounds, with a ball, etc. — The hole] "in
occurs in the pi. in 42^2, and (differently punctuated) in i S 14^^ of
holes in the ground; in Zee 14^2 jt jg used of the socket of the
eye. To infer from the last usage a reference here to the eye of
the snake is precarious. — Asp . . . viper] it is impossible and, for
the appreciation of this passage, unimportant to determine the
precise species of serpents intended : see EBi. and DB^ s.v.
Serpent. — The dwelling] a term with such a meaning as this is
required by the parallel, but it is very questionable whether
miXD, f^, which means place of lights meant also specifically
lighthole (BDB), den (RV); Di., Du. take the word to mean
the shining {thi?tg), i.e. the serpent's shining, glistening eye;
unfortunately, if this meaning of miKD could be admitted, the
parallel would still make it improbable that the poet is here
making use of the observation that babies " readily stretch out
their hands to shining objects." We should perhaps read mVD,
hole (Che.), or HDiyo, lair (Beer). — Trip about] the translation
rests on a conjectural emendation ; RV put for \\in is a con-
jectural rendering of the very questionable text of fl^.
XI. 1-8 221
I. Ten, ytj, nxa] all three words "are first found in the later [OT] litera-
ture" (Hackmann, p. 149); this is correct and not altogether insignificant,
nan was in use in the Aramaic dialect of N. Syria before the age of Isaiah :
cp. naaVn nen . . . nn n'a jnj, Zinjerli Inscriptions (Hadad), I. 3= Cooke,
NSI 61' ; and it is frequent in later Aramaic. Kioin renders oar, sceptre (Ps
45' ^). ot noD, staff (iixx 17'^ C) ; in Gn 30" % it is used of fresh cut poplar
wands, and in Nu 17^^ C of the rod that was to bud. In Syriac f^i^Q^^
c
means stuffy rod, sceptre ; in Assyr. hutartu means staff \ and Aari- has, as
one of its meanings according to the l^amiis as cited by Lane, a branch of a
tree, "ion (Pr 14' t) may have been more frequently in use with the Hebrews
than the two occurrences suggest. — n«] possibly late (see last n.), but not due
to Aramaic influence, for /^ii;j = n«=^»aJ (cp. Dr. § 178) does not appear
to occur in Aramaic. — 2. mn' nNTi nyn] one of the rare instances of two
co-ordinated construct cases depending on the same gen. (G-K. 128a; Kon.
iii. 275^). But possibly even this is the result of textual error. V.^** is at
present longer than **, and ffi renders mn' nKT by ey<rc/3c/a$ without the
addition of irpis rhv KiJ/Jtoj/ (33*). The original text may have had hkt, and this
may have been replaced by a correct marginal note explaining hkt to be nitv
nin\ — 3. ni.T nKTD innm] a corrupt dittograph of nm* nKTi nyn nn, not (Beer)
an error for '*'♦ tkt n n'jm (cp. Ezk 24"). Note that (!& renders mn' hkt
by 0<J/Soi; Qtov in v.*, by tiffipeia in v.* ; v.** (Br may be the addition of a
later hand. — 5. tiik . . Tijn] so read instead of Tim . , mm |^ (cp. 16' n.).
The evidence of (& in favour of two diflFerent words is strong, for ^uvyiieip,
idivni are frequently used for both njn, nm (and derivatives) ; here, where both
words occur together, dXrjuivoif which nowhere else renders either word, is
adopted in order to preserve the diflference. — 6. k'tdi] read ijn' : the strongest
evidence is given above. After Kal X^wv=td31, (St continues dfia ^wTK-rid-fyrov-
rat ; ffi also inserts between Kal tioax'i-pi-ov ( = Vain) and koI \iwv the words
Kal ravpos ( = ? K'TDi in a different position from f§). — D3 JfW] (S d^et airrovs,
Di. draws attention to the cstr. with 3 instead of the normal ace, and
therefore renders a driver among them. — 8. mn n'] Doubtful, for note (a)
vr\7\ would be the only occurrence in the poem of a pf. tense, and this
remains suspicious in spite of Driver, § 147 ; {h) the length of the line ; [c)
apart firom the possibility of its being found in the proper name *nn% nn, the
root is unknown in Hebrew: in Arabic and Syriac (,^J^, pOl) it is
frequent, and means to lead, direct ; yet no trace is to be found in either of
these languages of the meaning to stretch out commonly attributed to it in
this passage. The second of these objections is merely brought into relief, but
not removed, by chopping v. *** into two lines at Uiyfix, for the whole of **• is
parallel to ** : the halves are parallel neither to one another, nor to v.*».
mfriT is an early error, and conceals a single word which was the imperfect
tense of a verb parallel in sense to j/B'^en in v.^, possibly iTnn' (38** n.), shall
trip about, with the movements natural to a child learning to walk.
222
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
XI. 9-16. — The Return of the Dispersion to the Holy Land.
This passage is not entirely poetical (Lowth.), nor even with the excep-
tion of v.^^ from onnsD to the end (Du., Cond. ), but in part prose, as shown
below. Che. treats w.^'^^- ^*, Box i<"- ^^, Marti "■", as prose. In w.^^-w ^^
dominant rhythm in 3 : 3 ; this is probably not continued in v.^^, though the
V. has almost certainly suffered some textual corruption, leaving the exact
nature of the rhythm an open question. Marti treats vv.^^'^^ as a poem of
four strophes each containing two distichs : if this were right, the poem con-
tained ahysteron proteron, see on v.^'.
• No harm nor destruction shall be wrought throughout all
my holy mountain : for the land will have become full of the
knowledge of Yahweh as the waters cover the sea. ^^ And it
shall come to pass in that day the root of Jesse which will be
standing for a signal to the peoples — Jl
Him shall the nations consult,
And his resting-place shall be glorious.
11 And it shall come to pass in that day the Lord shall again
'raise' his hand to acquire the remnant of his people, which
remains over, from Assyria and from Egypt and from Pathros and
from Cush and from 'Elam and from Shin*ar and from Hamath
and from the isles of the sea.
^2 And he will raise a signal to the nations ;
And he will gather the outcasts of Israel,
And collect the dispersed (fem.) of Judah
From the four corners of the earth.
18 And jealousy of Ephraim shall cease,
And the vexers of Judah shall be cut off;
Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah,
Nor shall Judah vex Ephraim.
1* And they shall swoop down upon the shoulder of the
Philistines, westward,
Together shall they plunder the sons of the East ;
Edom and Moab shall be brought under their dominion.
And the children of Ammon shall be obedient to
them.
XI. 9-i6 223
i'^ And Yahweh will * dry up ' the tongue of the sea of
Egypt,
And he will swing his hand over the River . . .
And he will smite it into seven wadys,
And make it (a way) to be trodden with sandals.
^* And there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people
who remain over from Assyria, as there was for Israel in the day
that it came up from the land of Egypt.
The well-marked and sustained rhythm and parallelism, which
is so conspicuous in vv.^^^, is not continued in vv.®*^^. In
yv.12-14 something similar reappears, and but for the fact that
the tenor and spirit of these verses is different, and vv.^^^
sufficiently complete in themselves, w.^*^- ^^-i* might be regarded
as a single poem which has been interpolated (vv.*'^^) and added
to (vv.15^-)
Vv.9-16 appear to be a collection of brief pieces, in part prose,
in part poetry (see above). They are arranged in no very obvious
order, but they deal with related subjects, viz. the future glory of
Sion, and its attractiveness, as the home of true Religion, for
the Gentiles, vv.*'- ; the restoration of the Jews at present dis-
persed throughout the world, vv.^^*^ ^*'' ; the freedom of the future
community from attack and internal dissensions (v.^^), and its
success in establishing its authority over its neighbours, v.H
It is very doubtful whether any part of this section is the work
of Isaiah : most of it is clearly post-exilic, since it presupposes
the Exile and the Dispersion of the Jews as existing facts. The
argument for post-exilic date is well and fully stated by Che. in
Introd. pp. 59-62.
9 = 6525b + Hab 2I*. In 652* the subject of the vbs. are
clearly the harmful beasts, and the fact that 65 ^^^^^ is a speech of
Yahweh's immediately accounts for the first person in the phrase
my holy mountain : in Hab. pKH clearly means the earth, and
not merely the land of Judah. Here the first person is not
accounted for by the context, and both the subject of the vbs.
and the meaning of pNn are ambiguous. This closer cohesion
of the two parts of the v. with their respective contexts in 6525
and Hab 2^* is good reason for holding that their original homes
are there, and that here they are quotations carrying out the
general thought of what proceeds, viz. that there will be no more
224 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
harm and destruction, but not harmonising closely either with
thought or structure of the passage. If, now, v.^ is the original
continuation of vv.^"^, those verses must be later than Hab. and
65^5; so, e.g.^ Hackm. pp. 136-138, 146; but v.^ is rhythmically
distinguished, and should be separated from vv.^^^ So long as
ch. II in its entirety was referred to Isaiah, it was naturally
assumed, rather than critically maintained, that v.^ was the source
whence two later writers derived their words. I
Owing to the ambiguities referred to above, the exact point
which the annotator, who combined two quotations and inserted
them here, wished to make is not clear : possibly that Yahweh's
territory will no longer suffer from the nations of the world, for the
whole earth will have come to know that Yahweh is Yahweh, and
that His people are not to be molested with impunity, a line of
thought found in Ezk 39^^^'^^ ; but the modification of Habakkuk's
phrase, " the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh " (cp. Is 66i^^-) to
the knowledge of Yahweh, does not favour this. More probably we
should abandon the meaning earth, which p&iii has in Hab., and
seek another interpretation of the subjects of the vbs. They shall
not hurt, etc., obviously cannot refer to the weaned child and the
suckling, the last mentioned subjects in vv.^^^, nor, since they
are incapable of the knowledge of Yahweh, to the wild beasts of
vv.^*^ That the thought passes far back to attach itself only to
the ruthless and the wicked men of v.* is altogether improbable :
the subjects are best taken in the most indefinite way — no one
shall hurt, no hurt shall be done by man, for the knowledge of
Yahweh, which restrains from such conduct, will prevail throughout
the land. — All my holy mountain^ this may mean here the entire
Holy Land, for this was a mountain country, and, as belonging to
Yahweh, holy ; all is then explained, and the phrase is co-extensive
with the land in the next sentence. Naturally, of course,
Yahweh's "holy mountain," a phrase never used by Isaiah, is
Mount Sion. — As the waters cover the sea"] the comparison would
most naturally suggest itself to one who was thinking of the whole
earth (Hab.). — 10. The capital of the monarchy of the restored
Jewish community will be famous, and the nations of the world
will come and consult the king as an organ of the revelation of
the one true God ; cp. 2^** : but here prominence is given to the
vehicle of Yahweh's Revelation ; there the nations are said to
obtain instruction from Yahweh Himself. — The root of /esse]
^
XI. lo, II 225
i.e. the new shoot from the old root (cp. v.^), root being used in
the same sense as in 53^. — Which will be standing] the part here
is in any case awkward, but the future sense (ST) is preferable to
the present (U, RV). The pf. tense would be stylistically prefer-
able, but unsuitable in the context. — As a signal to the peoples']
cp. 5^^ (n.) : also 49^*. That a root should stand as a signal, or
banner, is an extraordinary combination of figures; root no
doubt, as a technical term, might at once suggest a person,
the Messianic king ; cp. " my servant the Shoot," Zee 3^ ; but
it remains extraordinary that a person stands like a signal or
banner (ct. v.^^). Possibly here, as in v.* the writer is citing
phrases from different places without welding them well together.
— Him shall the nations consult] so as to obtain oracles (S^^), or
religious instruction (cp. 2^), from him. — And his resting-place
shall be glorious] glorious things will be spoken of Sion, the city
of Yahweh, the resting-place (cp. e.g. Dt 12*, i K S^^) of His
Messiah and the birthplace of the nations into a new life (cp.
Ps 87) ; or, perhaps, we might compare 4^ nm^O is used also
of Yahweh's abode in the midst of His people (Ps 95" 132^*).
U renders " his sepulchre " ; this reflects an exegesis which saw in
the " signal " of the first part of the v. the Cross ; it is not due
to an etymology based on the use of the vb. m3 in 57*.
II. The Lord will re-possess himself of the survivors of his
people now scattered over the known world. The style is
awkward and some details are ambiguous; but the general
impression of a wide dispersion of the Jews as an existing fact is
too strongly and clearly conveyed for the passage to be pre-exilic :
cp. Zee io^"^2^ — Th£ Lord shall again * raise^ his hand to acquire
the remnant of his people] taken strictly, this should mean that the
remnant has already once been acquired, to wit, when Yahweh
brought back some of the exiled Jews from Babylon. But
possibly the style is loose, and all that the writer means is that
there will be a second acquisition : at the Exodus, Yahweh
acquired (^yi \^^^ cp. Ps 74^) a whole people; He is now going
to acquire what remains of His people by gathering the exiled
Jews from all quarters of the earth. — From Assyria^ etc.] either
the clauses define from whom the acquisition is to be made, in
which case the clause which remains over is otiose ; or there
is an awkward breviloquence — the remnant . . . which remains
over of (those who were in) Assyria^ etc. — Assyria, which as in
VOL. I. — 15
226 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Ezr 6^* (cp. I ©20 n.) may refer to the Persian Empire as the
contemporary occupant of the Tigris-Euphrates valley which
formerly belonged to Assyria, and Egypt are mentioned first as
being the centres of the two great civilisations of the Ancient
World. After these two wide terms follow (i) two specific districts
of the Nile valley, Pathros and Cush : Pathros is upper Egypt :
the Egyptian P-to-res meant South Land, and more particularly,
perhaps, the country extending from a few miles S. of Memphis
to Syene (Assouan) at the First Cataract;* Cush (cp. iS^ n.) is
Ethiopia, and extended southwards from the First Cataract ; (2)
two specific districts of the Tigris-Euphrates basins, Elam^ lying
to the E. of the lower Tigris (21^ n.), and Shinar (Gn ii^, Jos
7^^, Zee 5^^, Dn i^), i.e. Babylonia, the district in which the
city of Babylon and also Erech, Accad, and Calneh were situated
(Gn 10^*^) ; (3) Ifamath on the Orontes (10^ n.), for which Lag.,
deeming the reference to a city so relatively near Judah improb-
able, proposed to substitute a more remote district, and the isles,
or coastlandSy of the Mediterranean sea. The last term, never
used by Isaiah, is a favourite with the Deutero-Isaiah, who thereby
indicates his far western horizon. W. Max Miiller {DB —
Pathros) takes a different view of the relation of the terms
Egypt, Pathros, and Cush : he would give to Egypt here the
limited sense of lower Egypt ; then the three terms together
cover the Nile valley. So Esar-haddon describes himself as king
of the kings of Musur, Paturisi, and Ku-si. Some f hold that
from Pathros to the end of the v. is a subsequent addition. (&
has a rather different list.
12. The thought that Yahweh will gather home His widely
scattered people, expressed in prose and with geographical partic-
ularity in v.^^, is here expressed in poetry with poetical brevity
and expressiveness. The Dispersion will be brought ha-ckfrom
the four corners of the earth (Ezk 7^, Job 37^); Yahweh will raise
a signal {^^ n.), in response to which the nations will bring home
the exiled people (49^2 6620), and indeed the whole of it, Israel
as well as Judah, males (^mj) and females (niVD3) alike (cp. 49^2
60*). — 13. Israel, now called Ephraim (cp. 9^), andjudah, thus
restored (v. ^2^, will no more be subject to the envy and opposi-
tion of the nations, nor will the internal feuds which marked
* W. Max Miiller, in DB iii. 693.
t Sta., Du., Cond. j but not Di., Che., Marti.
XI. i2-i6 227
the actual history of Yahweh's people (cp. 9^0 (21))^ be renewed in
the age to come. For the future unity of Israel and Judah, see
Ezk 37^^^* and Hos 2^ (i^^); cp. "unto David their king" in
Hos 3^ ; for the cessation of outward hostilities, cp. e.g. 9** ^^.
—Jealousy of Ephraim . . , the vexers of JudaK\ D'*"1D« nK3p
may, of course, mean (G-K. 128^, 135^) either the jealousy
which Ephraim feels, or the jealousy of which Ephraim is the
object (cp. Ezk 35^^) ; and r\'y\\\'^ mv either those who had op-
posed or oppressed Judah, or those in and of Judah who are
at enmity with another country (RV marg.). But to treat the
genitives as subjective gives an unsatisfactory antithesis : —
Ephraimite sentiment will change, but in Judah opposition to
Ephraim will only be brought to an end by an annihilation of
those who will still cherish enmity towards Ephraim. The two
distichs of v.^^ speak of different things ; consequently the second
is not superfluous, and there is no reason for omitting it with
Du., Che., al. — 14. Re-united (v.^^), Yahweh's people will, as of
old under David, exercise dominion over the whole of Palestine,
East and West of Jordan; cp. Am 9^^-, also Ps 608-10(9-"). —
They shall swoop] cp. Hab i® ft^V). — The shoulder of the
Philistines] the hills between the maritime plain and the Judaean
highlands which formed a debatable ground between Judah and
Philistia. For the idiom, cp. "the shoulder of the sea of
Chinnereth"(Nu 34II), "the shoulder of Moab" (Ezk 259).—
The sons of the East] the nomadic tribes of the desert to the E.
of trans-Jordanic Palestine; cp. Jer 4928^., Jg (fi, — Shall be
brought under their dominion] lit. are the outstretching of their
handf i.e. that which their hand stretches out to take possession
of: cp. Ex 227.io(8.ii)._i5^ l5. Cp. Zee iqIO*^-. The second
Exodus (v.i^), in which the Remnant will depart as easily from
Assyria as Israel of old from Egypt (v.^^), would in reality be the
prelude to the unmolested life and victorious undertakings of the
restored exiles (v.^^^-). The present connection, or the order, of
vv.18-16 is perhaps not the original. — Will dry up] so ffi ( = nnnm,
cp. 50^) : J^ D^inm, will ban, devote. — The tongue of the sea of
Egypt] the Red Sea; tongue is also used for a tongue-shaped
piece of water in Jos 1$^'^ iS^*. — He will swing his hand] 1082 n.,
19!^ — The River] probably the Euphrates (7^0 n.); possibly the
Nile (cp. "in3 without the art. in 19^). — With the glowing heat of
his breath] or wind (see phil. n.). The clause, if the rendering
228 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
at all represents its meaning, goes oddly with he shall swing %zs
hand', perhaps it is a gloss on the previous line (Du., al.). —
The last part of the v. also is inadequately explained : it is
supposed to mean that the Euphrates will be smitten into
" seven (shallow) streams " (Che. SBOT), so that the returning
exiles may easily wade over. But why wear sandals to wade ?
Why seven streams? And would not this miracle be anti-
climactic after the complete drying up of the Egyptian sea?
Others think of waterless wadys over which the exiles pass in
sandals, i.e, dry-shod (Rashi, Ki.). The f)n3, wady^ is not speci-
fically a shallow stream ; it may be deep and strong enough to
carry away those who attempt to cross it (Jg 5^1, cp. Ezk 47^),
and at other times it dried up completely (i K 17^). — 16. A
highway] for the returning exiles : cp. 40^, the source (Du.)
rather than an echo (Di.) of this v.
9. r[^'\'] cp. 28', Ex 2* ; ct. nyn, ii^ On the ace. **' nw, see G-K. ii$d^
E renders inn* nx r\]n by *"'i KnSm n' j;nD'?='"' 133 nx nynS, Hab 2".
Houb.,Cond. read '^»nKTi nyi (cp. v."). — d'03D d*^ d'dd] "a unique form of
expression " with more analogy in Arabic than Hebrew : the nearest parallel
in Hebrew is Nu lo^" (P) ; remote parallels are 14^, Nu 25^* (P), Dt 4^ ; Dr.
§ 13s (7) Obs.— II. 'n«] many MSS read nw\— n'jr] (& rod dei^ai; read
riN^ (Marti). If |§ be retained, it is necessary to assume an ellipse of an
infinitive dependent on 1*01* and governing n\ — 12. 'nnj] for the omission
of daghesh in the t, see G-K. 20m. The Niph. part, of ma is also used of
banished, exiled Hebrews in 27^' 56^ Mic 4' (Zeph 3"), Dt 30* (Neh i*). —
14. »]n|] MT is due to erroneous interpretation : cp. W, and see Dr. § 190,
Obs. ; the cstr. is ^n^, which should be read here. — 15. The four lines are
unequal. The text may have suffered considerably. — irm D'ya] D'y is a Att. Xey.
In Arabic aIjJ means io be cloudy ^ to become thirsty y to be affected with
internal heat (see Lane) ; but this does not make it very probable that D'yn
inn is a rare synonym for ifJK pin^, and means in the heat of his spirit ^ still
less that it means in the glowing heat of his wind. Ges. ( Thes. ), al. read
inn Dsy3 (cp. Ex 14**) ; whether (!& xyeiJ/xart /Stafy (cp. U in fortitudine
spiritus sui) read this, or guesed at the meaning of |^, is uncertain — 16.
"WHD -nvHD nKB" nrx . . . nKts'] this persistent alliteration may have been
intended : there is nothing like it in Isa. — nwKD] (& iv AlyOm-ip,
XII. — Songs of Deliverance : to be sung on the occasion of the New
Exodus {11'^^'^^).
The chapter consists of two songs, (a) vv.^*^, (d) vv.**^, each
of which is provided with an introductory formula, resembling
XI. 9-1 6 AND XII. 229
those which introduce similar songs (25* 26^ 27^, cp. 14^^) in
chs. 24-27 ; and (c) a prophetic promise (v.*).
Each song written for the New Exodus (ii^^-^*) is suitably
enough reminiscent of the song (Ex 15^'^^) which, according to
the tradition already current in the writer's age, had been sung
by Moses and the children of Israel on the occasion of the First
Exodus; with v.**^<* cp. Ex 15**-^; with v.*^. Ex 15I.
The first song expresses Israel's gratitude that though
Yahweh had been angry (cp. lo'^), His anger had turned away
(io25), and He had comforted His people (cp. 40^-), delivering
them and restoring them to their land, and to an unmolested (v. 2^)
and glorious life there (ch. 11). The second song calls for the
proclamation to the nations of the might of Yahweh displayed
in the restoration of His people, and (v.^) for §ion to cry out
joyously at the presence in her midst of her great and Holy God.
It thus seems obvious that the chapter was written to occupy
its present position after a collection of prophecies that spoke of
Yahweh's anger with His people, but concluded with an account
of the New Exodus. Whether this collection of prophecies was
io*-ii^^ only or chs. i-n, ch. 12, being the sequel to ii^^^-^*, is
no earlier than that passage, and, therefore, post-exilic.
The argument as to date just stated is the briefest, and it is sufficient.
But the chapter, even if it be regarded by itself and independently of its
relation to what precedes, is clearly post-exilic. Ew. in 1840 was the first to
detect that it was not Isaiah's: "Words, figures, terms of expression, yes,
and the entire contents and spirit, are not Isaiah's : and this is so clear that
further proof would be superfluous. . . . The colour and character of the
passage clearly refer it to the times soon after chs. 40-66 ; and an old scribe or
reader who found with great delight a fulfilment of the words of ii^"'* in the
release from the Babylonian exile may at that time have enlarged Isaiah's
oracle with these exultant words" {Propheten des AB^^ i. 459, cp. pp. 77 f.).
Ew.'s discovery remained for some time unfruitful ; but his conclusion was
emphatically endorsed by Lag. in 1878 (Semiticay i.), and has since then been
widely admitted: see Stade {ZATIV, 1883, p. i6), Kuenen {Ottd.^iu 57),
Francis Brown {JBLit.y 1890, pp. 128, 131), Di., Du., Kon. {Einleitung,
319), Che. {Introd. 57-59), G. A. Smith (in Hastings' DB), Marti; cp., less
decisively, Dr. in ZOT* ; and for a defence of Isaiah's authorship, see W. H.
Cobb, viiJBLit., 1891, pp. 131-143. A date very considerably later than the
Exile seems more probable than that suggested by Ew. in view of the relation
of the poem to late Psalms. ** In scope and expression, in its conceptions
and its hopes, it is closely allied to the late Psalms, such as 118, 138, 145 :
cp. also 91-100, 107, III" (Brown).
Rhythm. — In w.**-, balanced dislichs — 3 : 3 ; in *'• the distichs are all
230
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
balanced, but of different length : the first distich in v.* is 2 : 2, the seconc
3:3; those in vv.^** are 4 : 4, each line being divided by a caesura into 2 : 2.
1 And thou shalt say in that day : —
^ I give thanks to thee, Yahweh, for thou wast angry with
me,
*And' thine anger turned away and thou comfortedst
me.
2 Behold, God is my salvation,
I trust and dread not;
For my strength and *my' song is Yah,
And he has become my salvation.
^ And ye shall draw water with joy out of the fountains of
salvation, * and ye shall say in that day : —
Give thanks to Yahweh,
Invoke his name;
Make known among the people his deeds,
Make mention that his name is exalted.
^ Make melody to Yahweh, for he hath wrought proudly ;
Let this be known throughout the whole earth.
* Give a shrill cry, give a ringing cry, O inhabitress of Sion
For great in thy midst is the Holy One of Israel.
I. Thou shalt 5ay'\ Israel, who speaks in the first pers. sing.
in the following poem, as so often in the Psalter, is here addressed.
Ct. the distributive pi. of v.* (5^). — I give thee thanks] the word
(min) occurs also in v.^ 25^ 3818- ^^ and nowhere else in the Book of
Isaiah: it occurs in Gn 29^^, very frequently in the Psalter, and
elsewhere most frequently in Chron. ; cp. Driver, Parallel Psalter,
pp. 461 f. Israel gives thanks because Yahweh's anger had not
been drawn out to all generations (cp. Ps 85^), but had turned
away (ct. 9II etc.). The vb. c^jx is used here only in the Book of
Isaiah ; other occurrences of it are worth comparing in illustra-
tion of the similarity in tone and temper of this Psalm and late
liturgical pieces : see Ps 60^ 79^ 85^, i K 8^^ (with the following
verses). — And thine anger tiirtied away\ it is best to assume a
slight mutilation of the text (see phil. n.) : let thine anger turn
away (RVmarg.) is a correct rendering of |^, but leaves Yahweh's
anger as the sole ground for giving thanks, which is highly
improbable.-iG^d?^] 7X without the art. absolutely of the one
H
XII. 1-6 231
true God, as in Deutero-Isaiah (40^^ 45^*) and Psalms (e.g.
16I i7« 106"). Cp. "with us is God " (El) in 2fi' 10, and perhaps
"the stars of God (El)" in 14^^^ but the predicative use in 31^
is, of course, different, as also are the remaining occurrences of
h^ in 1-39, viz. 9^= lo^^ (El Gibbor) and 5^^ (with the art). —
2C. d = Ex 1 52, which is also used in Ps 11 8^* : see above. — And
dread not] 19^^ n. — Yakwek] is inserted in J^ after Yah (cp. 26*),
but it is absent from ffi and from Ex 15^, and it overloads the
line. — 3. The restored Israelites will rejoice as they draw on the
unfailing fountain of Yahweh's grace ; cp. 55^, Jer 33^0'- ; for the
figure of Yahweh as a fountain or cistern, see Jer 2^^ 17^^, cp. Ps
^6^^ 87^. — 4. And ye] (!K And thou ; cf. v.^. — 4a. b. C = Ps 105^. —
4d. Cp. Ps 148^8 : ct. "Yahweh (not his name, as here) is exalted,"
217. — 5. Cp. Ex. 15^^ — Make melody to] this word ("IDT) is very
characteristic of the Psalter, and occurs outside it only here
and in Jg 5^ — He hath wrought proudly] niW nt^y : in Ex
15I rm Tm\ cf. Ps 93I IJ'nij nis: . . . niiT; niW is similarly
used in 26^®, but with different nuances by Isaiah (9^^ 28^). —
Let this be known] this with backward reference to the fact of
God's proud and majestic achievements. — 6. Give a shrill cry]
so 24I* 54I, Jer 31'^ — all, as here, synonymous with pi: in lo^^^
i)nv has a different force. — Inhabitress of Sion] Jer 51^*^ f: cp.
"inhabitress of Shaphir," "of Maroth," "of Lachish," Mic i".
What is meant is the entire population of the city. — For great in
thy midst] cp. " Great is Yahweh ... in the city of our God,"
Ps 482 0) ; cp. Ps g^^.—The Holy One of Israel] this favourite
term of Isaiah's and the Deutero-Isaiah's is used by this Psalmist
in common with two or three other Psalmists: see Ps 71^ 78*1
89I9.
I, 'ipn^i ^£5K a^;] MT clearly takes the vbs. as jussives : cp. the fut. of
5n, "When I shall have returned to thy Law thy anger will turn away from
me and thou wilt have pity on me " ; but f& {koX dir^cTT/jc^as rbv 0v/jl6v <rov
Kal ^\iT](rds /le), 5 = ^f^l (Hiph. ; cp. Ps 78^, Job 9^* •). Read, 'JOnjBi ibn 3;fJn.
Marti prefers to read a«?, assuming a dittography of ' in |§ ; but the coupling .
of the vbs. {(&) is far more probable, since the real reason ('3) of Ttik is first
reached in the last two (cp. 5*). This point also weighs against the theory
that the text is sound and ^tff" a *' poetically shortened " form for a^','!, a theory
that is precariously supported by reference to Hos 6* (note preceding 1) and
Ps 18" (ct. 2 S 22^2) . cp. Dr. § 174.— 2. n' man] mon has suffered the loss
of' before .t. — 3. 'Jiyi^p for the two pathahs, cp. ni^y: from nbji;! ; in i K 18'
the alternative form 'j^yj? occurs. — 5. nyn'c] K«tib, Pual part. ; K*r^ ny?D,
232 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Hoph. part. The Pual part, elsewhere means acquaintance. The IC're (Lv
4^- ^t) is preferable, the part, being gerundial (G-K. Ii6^); but perhaps
lyYin (ffi) was the original reading ; cp. the 1| noi and v.*.
XIII.-XXIII. — Prophecies mainly devoted to Foreign Nations,
This main section of the Book of Isaiah falls into the follow-
ing subsections : — The Oracle of Babylon, 13^-1428; The Fall of
Assyria, 1424-27; of Philistia, 1429-32; The Oracle of Moab, i5f.;
The Oracle of Damascus (and Ephraim), 1 7^"^^ ; The Tumult of
many Nations, 17^2-14. The Land beyond the rivers of Cush, 18;
The Oracle of Egypt, 19; Isaiah a sign against Egypt and
Ethiopia, 20 ; The Oracle of "the Wilderness of the Sea," 21^*1**;
The Oracle of Dumah, 2iii^-; The Oracle "In Arabia," 21I3-I6;
The Oracle of the Valley of Vision, 22'-^'^; The Fate of Shebna,
2 216-25; The Oracle of Tyre, 23.
The nine, or (including 1429-32) ten, "oracles," either in whole
or in part, not improbably at one time formed by themselves an
anonymous " Book of Oracles " ; to these the sections not defined
as oracles were in that case subsequently added ; the addition of
the words " which Isaiah the son of 'Amos saw " to the title of
the first section (13^), may indicate that the whole of the enlarged
work came to be attributed to Isaiah : see, further, Introduction
§§33f.
XIII. i-XIV. 2Z.— Babylon.
The " Oracle of Babylon " consists of {a) a poem predicting
the capture of Babylon, " the beauty of kingdoms," by the Medes,
and the complete and permanent desolation of the site of the
city, 132-22; (^) a section, part poetry, part prose, explaining that
the Fall of Babylon will be the prelude to Yahweh's restoration
of the Israelites to their land, and the subjection to them there
of those who at present exact from them the hard service of
captives, 14^"^; possibly 13220.(1 belongs to this section: see
Geiger, Urschrift, p. 353 ; (r) a song of triumph over a cruel and
arrogant tyrant who had conquered and held in subjection the
entire world, 14*^-21 ; according to section (b) this king was a
king of Babylon (14^*); {d) a prose re-statement of the theme
of {a) — Yahweh is about to exterminate the Babylonians and
make the site of the city desolate ; {d) also appears to refer to {c).
m
XIII. i-xiv. 23 233
Whoever is answerable for the final form of the oracle quite
clearly, whether correctly or not, understood the whole to refer
to Babylon. The poem in ch. 13 was written at a time when
Babylon was the commanding city of the entire world (13^^), and
when it was natural to expect that her supremacy, if wrested
from her at all, would be wrested by the Medes (13^^); i.e. it
was written at some time after the Fall of Nineveh in c. 606 b.c.,
but before the actual Fall of Babylon in 538 b.c. ; not later than
538, for the fate of Babylon is described in 1319-22 prophetically,
not ex eventu ; the desolation of the site of the city was by no
means what the writer depicts. A date about, or a little before,
550 B.C. best meets the case (see below on 13^^).
Clearly, then, the oracle of Babylon is no earlier than the
Exile: it is probably later, for 141-** (22f.) js post-exilic rather
than exilic; Babylon to the writer of these verses may be a
symbolic name for all those that oppress Israel; the Israelites
who are to be restored are to come from many quarters (see
141-^). The song of triumph (14*'^^) judged by itself less clearly
reveals its date (see below) ; but it is fairly safe to infer, if merely
from the striking difference in style, that it is not the work of the
author of i4^-^.
We may then attribute the oracle in its present form to a
post-exilic editor who wrote 14^*** to connect two poems (132-22
and 14*^*21) which he understood, and in the case of the first at
least correctly, to refer to the Fall of Babylon. He, too, may
have added 1422^-, and perhaps have introduced some modifica-
tions into 132-22.
For some two thousand years and more the singularly unfortimate guess
of some editor who thought that the entire oracle was a prophecy of Isaiah's
(13^) led to the unquestioning acceptance of Isaiah's authorship of 13^-14^.
The impossibility of this was perceived by Eichhom, who, however, though
he correctly perceived the terminus a qu*^ failed to see that ch. 13 at least
was written before the end of the Exile. He treated the entire oracle as
post-exilic. Ges. correctly dated ch. 13 in the Exile, and with him, as with
most succeeding scholars till Du., this was allowed to determine the date
of the entire section. Bredenkamp, who maintained Isaiah's authorship of
ch. 13, but saw in i4**'-2® a poem on the fall of Nebuchadnezzar, assigned
14"* to a third hand. Rejected by Di. as "apologetische Halbheit," this
correct perception of difference was utilised by Du., who treated I4^-*^ as a
post-exilic editor's link connecting 132-22 (to ^hich he thought 1422*' might
also belong) and i4*''-2^, the two poems being possibly, but not necessarily, the
work of the same author. The analysis has been accepted by Che,, M^rti,
234 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
and others ; but with less readiness to admit that the two poems may be the
work of the same hand, or that ijs^^- may belong to i^'^. "There are such
differences in the imaginative pictures of the judgment in the two works, and
there is so much more poetic heat in the ode than in the prophecy, that the
conjecture (already offered in PI \. 21) of a twofold authorship is a reason-
able one " (Che. Introd. p. 75).
But once i^^'"^^ is isolated, the date of it cannot be determined so clearly
or so closely as the date of 132-22. and there have been attempts of late to
show that it is earlier and, indeed, the work of Isaiah ; see below, pp. 251 f.
That the section 13^-1422 cannot in its entirety be the work of Isaiah
follows so obviously from the historical situation presupposed in 13^'^^, that
it need not be more elaborately proved here. For such proof, see, e.g..^ Ges.,
Di., Che. Introd. 67 ff. For defences of Isaiah's authorship, see Uhland,
Vat. Jes. cap. xiii. . . . prophet ae Jesaiae vindicatum (Tubingen, 1798), the
commentary of Or. , and earlier editions of Del.
XIII. I. Title. — The oracle of] i.e. concerning Babylon ;
cp. 15^ 17^ 19^ 21^-11 22^ 23I, Nah i^ NK^, oracle^ or utterance^
is a noun derived from the vb. KK'a used as in t^ (n.) 42^. —
Which Isaiah saw] i.e. received by revelation : cp. i^ n., 2K See
further on this title, Introduction, §§ 28 ff.
XIII. 2-22. — The coming Destruction of Babylon.
The dominant rhythm in vv.^"® is 3 : 2, in w.^-^ it is 3 : 3. In vv.^"^
there are 12 to 14 distichs, most of which are obviously 3:2; at most two are
3 : 3, and even these were probably 3 : 2, for in v. 2*" makkeph Sp'ionn (cp.
II onKB') ; and in v.'*' truN may be intrusive (see n. below). Of some 25
distichs in vv.^"^ most are clearly 3 : 3 ; in MT only one (v.""* *») is 3 : 2,
though by makkephing vh with the vb. in w.^'**'' 22d two further 3 : 2 distichs
could be obtained. On the other hand, if the makkeph be omitted after ^yi,
even v.*^** ^ is 3 : 3, not 3 : 2.
By omitting a word from the second line of several distichs (viz. in
yy 9d. lid. 12b. i4dj^ ^y assuming the loss of two words after v.*^* and also after
v.^^'', by treating v.^* as two distichs (** Langverse "), and by other hazardous
treatments of the text and improbable line divisions, Du. nearly succeeds in
reducing the whole of vv.2-22 |.q ^hat he, and after him Marti, Box, and
Whitehouse, claim that it was — 42 distichs 3 : 2. Box is less consistent than
Du. in his reconstruction, but still boldly claims that the whole is in the
rhythm of the Hebrew dirge. But if the 5 successive distichs in vv.^** and
the 6 successive distichs in vv.^^'^'^^ are, as they stand in |^ (and Box does not
emend), in the same rhythm, then there is no such thing as distinction of
rhythm in Hebrew. Vv.^'* are in echoing, vv.^^''"^* in balanced rhythm.
In both parts of the chapter there are irregularities, i.e. distichs neither
3 : 2 nor 3:3; but at least some of these are due to textual corruption ; see
notes on vv,'* •• '• *• ^^- '^. Note, further, that vv.'-'- 2"a- ^ were 2 : 3 unless a
XIII. 2-22 235
word II Din has dropped out after ipT in v." and nip in v.^''* (see n.) ; v."** '•
contains in all only 4 accents ; ^'*'' * is 2 : 2 (balanced, not echoing).
The strophic structure, if such was intended, is not clear, or, if clear,
irregular. In the translation, spaces are left where there seems to be a larger
pause in the sense. Du., followed by Box, distributes his hypothetical 42
long lines into six strophes each containing exactly seven lines, and ending
respectively with w.** ^ ^^' ^^ ^^' ^,
* " On a bare hill raise the signal,
Cry aloud to them;
Wave the hand that they may enter
Through the gates of the nobles.
* (For) 'tis I have charged * to (execute) my anger *
[The host of] my consecrated ones,
Yea, I have summoned my warriors,
My proudly exultant ones."
* Hark ! a tumult on the mountains
As of much people ;
Hark ! the din of kingdoms,
Of nations assembled.
Yahweh of Hosts is mustering
The host of battle.
* They are coming from a land afar off,
From the end of heaven —
Yahweh and the instruments of his indignation.
To ruin all the earth.
* Howl ! for the day of Yahweh is near,
As devastation from the Almighty it cometh.
"^ Therefore all hands will hang slack.
And every heart of man faint.
* And . . . will be dismayed . , .
• ••••••
They shall be seized with pangs and pains.
As a travailing woman shall they writhe;
They shall look at one another in amazement.
Their faces will be aflame.
* Behold the day of Yahwch cometh,
Cruel with wrath and heat of anger,
To make the earth a desolation,
And to destroy the sinners thereof from it.
236
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
^0 For the stars of heaven and its Orions
Shall not give their light;
The sun is dark when it rises,
And the moon shall not let its light shine.
^^ "And I will punish the world for 'its' evil,
And the wicked for their iniquity ;
And I will make the pride of the presumptuous cease.
And the haughtiness of the awe-inspiring will I bring
low.
^2 I will make mortals more rare than fine gold.
And men than gold of Ophir."
^3 Therefore the heavens * will tremble,*
And the earth quake out of its place,
Through the wrath of Yahweh of Hosts,
And in the day of the heat of his anger.
^* And it shall come to pass, as a hunted gazelle,
And as a flock with none to gather it.
They shall turn every one to his people.
And they shall flee every one to his land.
1^ Every one that is found shall be thrust through.
And every one that is caught shall fall by the sword.
1^ Their children shall be dashed in pieces in their sight,
Their houses shall be spoiled and their wives ravished
^'' *' Behold I am stirring up
Against them the Medes,
Who take no account of silver,
And in gold find no delight.
18 ....
m
They have no compassion on the fruit of the womb.
Nor doth their eye look pityingly on children.
^' And Babylon the beauty of kingdoms.
The glorious pride of the Chaldaeans,
Shall be as when God overthrew
Sodom and Gomorrah.
XIII. 2-22 237
2® It shall be uninhabited for ever,
It shall be undwelt in to all generations :
The Arab shall not pitch tent there,
Nor shepherds fold (their flocks) there.
*^ But yelpers (?) shall make their lair there,
And their houses shall be full of shriekers ;
And there shall ostriches dwell,
And satyrs shall dance there.
22 And howling beasts shall sing in the mansions thereof,
And jackals in the delightful palaces.
Its time is nearly come.
And its days shall not be prolonged.
The poem describes the summoning of Yahweh's warriors,
vv.*'*, their assembling and advance, vv>^-, and the terror
of the people against whom they march, w.^^^ ; the effect
on Heaven and earth, vv.^^^^ ; the flight of the foreign people
in the threatened city to their own lands and the slaughter
of those that remain, w.^^-^^. In v.^*^ it is first stated that it
is the Medes who are to be Yahweh's warriors, and in v.^® that
Babylon is the threatened city. The poem closes with a
description of the complete and eternal desolation of the site of
Babylon.
The poem is itself, substantially as it stands, or it rests upon
a poem which was, the work of a Jew living during the Exile,
watching the movements of the Medes, and anticipating that the
proud city and empire of Babylon would be overthrown by them ;
it must have been written about 550 b.c. ; see above, p. 233, and
on v.^^.
Two characteristics of the section, one of its form and one
of its substance, suggest that the original poem may have
received additions and been subject to modifications beyond
those (of which there are many) that are due to ordinary
processes of textual corruption. Firstly, there is a clearly
marked change in the dominant rhythm which formally
distinguishes vv.^'^ from w.®-22 (see above). Secondly, whereas
in vv.^'''"^* the poem is quite clearly concerned with actual
conditions, and possibilities closely related to them, in other
places there appears the vagueness of an eschatological poem ;
the opening verses might well refer to superhuman armies of
n
238 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH ^^
Yahweh,* and by no means obviously suggest a single specific
nation — the Medes : so again the darkness (v.^^) and the uni-
versal commotion are eschatological features, and in v.^^ it is
not Babylon, but the whole world, that is to be punished. If
these eschatological features were limited to the 3 : 2 distichs
(vv.^-8), we might suppose that an eschatological fragment has
been prefixed to a poem predicting the Fall of Babylon ; but they
are not ; they appear also in vv.^^^^.
2-4. Yahweh's warriors summoned and assembled.
— Let those whose duty it is to do so make signals to the Medes
(v.^^) to enter Babylon (v.^^) as the executants of Yahweh's
anger. — On a bare hill'\ where the signal will be conspicuous.
With nSB': in f, cp. D''^BB', bare hills, e.g. 4118, jgr ^2 4II. —
Raise the signal] Jer 51^7, see 5^^ n. — Wave the ha?td\ clearly
as a third way of giving a signal : but this meaning of T C]"'in
(11^^ 19^^) does not occur again. — The gates of the nobles']
apparently the Babylonians are treated as nobles in relation to
the other inhabitants of the world (cp. 47'^). The term D'2n3 is
applied to men of rank and position on whom society and
government rest; it is parallel to "king" in Job 34^*, to
"princes" (onC') in Nu 21^^ and Pr 8^^; cp. also, "It is better
to take refuge in Yahweh than to trust in nobles," Ps 118^. —
3. On the conjectural emendations underlying the translation,
see phil. n. — /] Yahweh. — Consecrated ones] i.e. soldiers; see
next line. Cp. "consecrate nations against her," Jer Si^*^;
" consecrate war, rouse up the warriors," Jl 4 (3)^. War was a
sacred institution, and therefore those who fought were conse-
crated and subject to strict laws of purity and taboo : see Dt
2310-15^ 2 S 1 1^1, also Jer 6* 22'', Mic 3^; F. Schwally, Semitische
Kriegsalterthilmer. — My proudly exultant ones] Zeph 3^^; cp.
2 2^ n. — 4. The mountains] of Media. — Kingdoms . . . nations]
under the sway of the king of Media; cp. Jer 51 2"^-, "Call
together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and
Ashkenaz . . . consecrate against her the nations, the king
* They were so understood by Eus. , who, if the poem has come down in
its original form, is rightly criticised by Jer. in his comment on v.". ** Principes
et gigantes juxta LXX Translatores Eusebius virtutes Angelicas interpre-
tatur, et pessimos daemones, qui ad eversionem Babylonis missi sunt," and on
v.^' " Apertum est quod late bat : quod nequaquam fortes et gigantes, Angeli
intelligendi sunt et daemones, sed Medorum gens.
XIII. 2-6 239
(dSi) of Media, his governors and all his viceroys, and all the
land of his dominion."
2. iK3'i] followed by the ace as in Ps loo*. — ^3, ♦npoS 'n'W '3k] for ^ of
the obj. of .Tijf, see Ex i'^, Jer 32^3. But the words are probably a mutilated
distich : one of the lost words ('Bw*?), perhaps shifted down to the next line
which is over long. By a further conjecture Marti obtains two good 3 : 2
distichs :
'tnpo K3!< I 'bkS 'nix 'jk
WKJ "Vhu I '1133 'HKip D3
4. mm] for ? : rare ; see BDB 198a. — n'lo^?©] to be so pointed (t!D), not
nb^Dij (MT), which destroys both rhythm and parallelism. —
5-8. Terror at the approach of Yahweh and His
warriors. — 5a. b. Cp. s^^ 46I1. — T/ie instruments of his indig-
nation'] Jer 50^^ ; cp. " instruments of war " as applied to Saul
and Jonathan, 2 S i^"^. — All the earth] rhetorical for the entire
Babylonian empire (Jer. al.), or eschatological ? See above,
p. 237 f. — 6. Hoivl] Jl i5-i3. and the remainder of v.^ = Jl i^^b.
other similarities to Joel occur in vv.^ ^®* ^*. Joel is imitative
{Exp, 1893, Sept., pp. 208-225), and may be the borrower, or
second user, of most of these common phrases or ideas ; but this
V. is rhythmically peculiar in its present setting ; it is a distich
4 : 3, or, apart from howl^ 3 : 3 i in the latter case the rhythm
is that of vv.^-22, but not of w.^-^ (3:2); in the former it re-
sembles the rhythm of neither part of ch. 13. Possibly the v.
was interpolated so as to generalise a prophecy of the overthrow
of Babylon by the Medes into a prophecy of the final and
universal judgment. If original in its present position, the
imperative wail must be addressed to the Babylonians ; but it
breaks in awkwardly and forms a less satisfactory antecedent
than v.* to the therefore of v.''. Nothing is gained by putting
w.^"8 after vv.^'^^ (Cond. ). — As devastation from the Almighty]
or, reproducing the assonance in '•ItJ'D IB'D, as an overpowering
from the overpowerer (Dr., Joel and Amos^ p. 45). The coiner
of the present phrase associated the divine name HK' with,
the root nnU' (21^ 33I etc.), and must have understood it to mean
the Waster, or Devastator. The actual etymology and original
meaning of the term is altogether obscure ; (& frequently renders
by TravTOKpaTwp, whence EV Almighty ; the later Greek versions
by Uavos, which is probably also intended by the MT punctua-
tion "^K^, he that is sufficient. By modern scholars it has been
240 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
explained as ^*1B^, my lord? (cp. ^JHK), or compared with the
Babylonian epithet of Bel, sadu rabbu— great mountain (cp. liv
as an epithet of God). The term occurs nowhere else in the
Book of Isaiah. Frequent as an archaism in Job and P, it
occurs rarely elsewhere : Gn 49^5, Nu 24*- ^^ are, presumably,
early, and Ezk i^* lo^, Ps 681^ 91I, Ruth i^o^-, late instances of its
use. See, further, on the usage, etymology, and meaning of the
name, HPN 196 ff.; Dr., Joel and Amos^ 8 if.; EBi. 3326;
Ges-B. s.v. — 7 f' The sequence to v.^ ; v.^ being parenthetic, if not
interpolated. The Babylonians become paralysed with fear. —
All hands] The seat of power, cp. Jos 8^^, Ps 76^. — Hang down]
helpless: cp. Jer 50*^; also 2 S 4^, Jer 62*, Ezk 'j^'^ 21I2, Zeph
3^*, Job 4^. — Every heart of man] the heart of man without every
is quite a general expression : cp. Ps 104!^ ; every heart is a more
exact parallel to all hands. Of man is perhaps a misplaced
fragment of the mutilated line that follows, or an interpolation
intended to modify every (Babylonian) heart into every heart of
mankind. In J^ the distich is 3:3, with the omission, like the
neighbouring distichs, 3 : 2. — 8. And they will be dismayed]
according to Di. the subj. is the owners of the hearts and hands
just mentioned in v.^ : very improbable ; the word ^i>n33 is the
fragment of a lost distich. — a. d. For the figure of birth-pangs,
never found in the prophecies of Isaiah, see 21^, Jl 2^, Jer 50*^
49^*, Ps 48^^. — Their faces are aflame] in feverish excitement ;
cp. Nah 2^1, Jl 2^.
7. The obvious parallelism of nrsin D'T So and dd* 33V ^3, and th
prevalent parallelism within the distichs, makes the theory that 'in dt j3-^y
is one mutilated distich and i'?n33i dd' K'Ijk 33*? ^3 (Du., Che. , Box) is another, far
less probable than the theory of mutilation stated above. — 8. pmK'] either the
obj. them is omitted, or D'^3m D'TX is the obj. ; for ton with similar objects,
cp. Job 18^ (f^ not (!K) 21* (construction ambiguous).
9-13. Darkness and universal commotion ac-
companying Yahweh's judgment of the world for its
wickedness. — 9a. b. On the text, see phil. n. — 10. Darkness :
cp. 58O 822, Am 89, Ezk 30I8 32'^-, Zeph i^s, Jl 2^0 3* 4I5 Jer 428:
see, further, KAT^, p. 393. — loa. b. Possibly a variant of c. (d.).
Note the absence of parallelism. — Its Orions] "Orion and other
constellations of the same brilliancy" (BDB). But thQ plural
is strange, and was perhaps not read by 6r : see phil. n. Other
allusions to Orion are Am 5^, Job 9^ 38^11. The identification
XIII. 7-14 241
of i^D3 with Orion goes back to (5 and is probably correct ; if
so, the name meaning fool goes back to a myth of " some fool-
hardy, heaven-daring rebel, who was chained to the sky for
his impiety" {Dr. ^ Joel and AmoSy 179); for etymological
speculations, see Harper's note on Am 5^. — 11 f. Yahweh speaks.
— The world] !)2n is never, like pK, limited to a single country.
The entire world is to be punished for its wickedness and
violence; in 14^'^ it is the object of the wickedness and violence
for which the king of Babylon is to be punished. The following
terms, the wicked^ the presumptuous^ the awe-inspiring {2^\ may
be as wide and universal as the world \ but they might also apply
specifically to the Babylonians : cp. 14^ (Hab i** ^3) for the first ;
and note that "the most awe-inspiring of the nations" is a
standing epithet with Ezekiel for the Babylonians : see Ezk 3o^<>^-
32i2f. 287 3ii2._i2. Gold of Ophir] Cp. Ps 4510, Job 28i«, i Ch
29*, Job 222*. This specially prized gold was brought from
Ophir, a district reached by ships sailing from *Esion-geber at
the head of the Gulf of 'Akabah (i K 9^-8). For the understand-
ing of the present passage it is unnecessary to discuss the exact
situation of Ophir : for theories, see DB and EBi. s.v. ; also
Skinner, Genesis^ p. 222. — 13a. b. Cp. Jl 2^<*. — The heavens will
tremble'] so (Sr : f^, awkwardly continuing the speech of Yahweh
(vv.^^), half-way but only half-way through v.^^, / will make the
heavens tremble.
9. qK pnm n-iajn ni3K H3 ni.r dv 7\i7\'\ the distich is scarcely 3 : 3, still
less 3:2; nor is the cast of it quite like that of the other distichs. If the
text is correct, nnn is best taken as in apposition to m.T di» and rriDyi as
a case of waw concomitantiae (7' n.). Possibly ffi read may niSK (ace. of
respect: G-K. 131/, y). Du. omits m.T dv ; but an expressed subject of k3
seems to be required. Possibly, however, dv has been inserted (cp. v.^') ;
ni3K would go better with m.T than with DV : cp. Job 30^^ (n)3K). — 10. 'aao '3
DiT^'oai D'DB'n] (!K o\ 7A/3 AffT^pes toO ovpavod koX 6 'Cipeluv Kal iroj 6 K6<rfios tov
oirpavov : are the last two clauses a paraphrase of Dn''?'03i ? or did (& read
V'03i, and is the last clause in (Sr a doublet of the first? Du. omits '3313. —
II. nyn] read a^VT: cp. the parallel DJiy. IB xaKd probably = nyn — inter-
mediate between |^ and the original text. — 13. I'JTK] ^ is an error for im»
ffi {dvfJt.ud'^aeTai : cp. 37*).
14-16. Flight from Slaughter and Violation.— All
foreigners in Babylon (cp. 47^^ Jer 51^) will attempt to flee
(v.i*), but if found there will share the fate of the Babylonians,
who will perish one and all. — 14. A flock] ffi a wandering (l3K,
VOL. I. — 16
242 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
as I S 93-20, Ezk i\^) flock. For the figure, cp. i K 22^7^ Ezk
34^ — 15 f. The Jewish aspiration for vengeance lies behind the
description : may the Babylonians be served as they served us !
Cp. Ps 137^^-. — Strictly speaking, people who have fallen by the
sword (v.^^) cannot subsequently (v.^^) see their children dashed
in pieces (Marti); but it would be precarious to deny the
possibility that the present sequence of the w. is original. —
l6b. Cp. Zee 142. But the spoiling of the houses stands
curiously between the fate of the children and of the women.
The text may be in some disorder. Haupt attempts a recon-
struction {SBOT, p. 124).
17 f. The Medes. — Yahweh speaks again, revealing the
instruments of His indignation — the Medes — and (v.^^) the
object of it, Babylon. Whether the divine speech extends to
the end of the poem, and if not how far, is uncertain. —
17. Behold I am about to stir up against them the Medes\ cp.
Jer 57^^ "Yahweh hath stirred up the spirit of the king (ffi ; J^
kings) of Media, because his device is against Babylon to destroy
it : for it is Yahweh's vengeance, the vengeance for [what was
done in 586 b.c. to (cp. 51^^)] his temple." The historical situa-
tion in both passages is the same; Babylon still occupies a
supreme position in the eyes of the world ; but the Medes are
threatening that supremacy. This historical situation can be
closely defined : it existed not earlier than 561 B.C., and it ceased
to exist with the capture of Babylon by Cyrus in 538 b.c. The
Medes (no, Assyr. Madai\ in Persian inscriptions Mdda) are
first mentioned by Shalmaneser 11. in the 9th cent. b.c. ; and in
the 8th century raids against Median chieftains are recorded by
the Assyrian kings Tiglath-pileser and Sargon. Increasing in
power through the 7th cent., the Medes, or Umman {i.e. hordes of)
Manda,* at the end of that century, in alliance with, but without
the active support of, the Babylonians destroyed Nineveh, and
subsequently divided the spoils with the Babylonians. Down to
the end of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar friendly relations existed
* M^Soi (Herod, i. 106, 185 ; cp. no, Jer $1^) ; Umman-Manda (stele of
Nabuna'id ; ed. Messerschmidt). For some different explanations of the exact
relation of the terms Medes, Madai, and (Umman-) Manda to one another,
and for fuller discussion of the points summarised above, see KAT^ 177,
100-105 ; S. Langdon, Neubabyl. Konigsinschriften^ 3 fF. ; Jeremias, PR£?yi\\.
491 ; Sayce, DB, s.v. Medes; Rogers, Hz'st. of Bad. and Ass. ii. 288 ff., 368 ff.
XIII. 15-21 243
between the Babylonians and the Medes (or Manda) ; but these
ceased with his death in 561 B.C. From the mention of the Medes
only without reference either to the Persians or Cyrus, some infer
that the prophecy was written before 549, in which year Cyrus
overthrew the Median empire of Astyages (Dr. LOT^ 2 1 2). — Who
regard not silver^ etc.] their attack is not to be turned aside by
money payments. — 18. The opening words of the v. can be ren-
dered and bows shall dash youths in pieces^ but the text is certainly
corrupt : see phil. n. — The fruit of the womh\ parallel to, and
synonymous with, children (or, sons\ i^ n.); cp. Ps 127^, Mic 6^.
18. nat^oin onyj mnj^pi] (&. ro^ei'ifiara veavlaKuv awTpirj/ovaiv. The order
— subj., obj., vb. — is unusual, but not unknown: Dr. §208(3). The vb.
being ^rd/em. pi. onyj cannot be the subj., nor can the subj. be either indef.,
or the Medes ; cp. ®r, and "B sed sagittis parvulos interficient. mncp must be
the subj., if the text be correct; yet it is very doubtful whether bows meant
bowmen^ or vtr\ could be predicated of bows : in 2 K 8", Ps 137"! the subj.
of roT is personal. The three words of |^ occupy the place of a whole distich,
i.e. they are the (corrupt) fragment of six words. Du. constructs two distichs
out of the three words on the basis of Jer 50*^^ 51^'^; but his distichs are
3 : 2, and therefore not in the rhythm prevailing in w.^"^.
19-22. The eternal desolation of Babylon. — Babylon,
still as yet glorious and supreme, will be overthrown as
completely as Sodom and Gomorrah : its site will be for ever
uninhabited ; even nomads will avoid it ; it will be given up
to solitude-loving and demonic beasts. — 19. The beauty] or
ornament of the many kingdoms that constituted the Babylonian
empire, or perhaps the phrase was intended even more widely. —
As when God overthrew] Jer ^o^^ (49^^): cp. i'^ n. — 20a. b =
Jer 50^^^ — The Arab] the Arabs are first mentioned in Jer 3^ :
the word means dweller in the steppes^ and is applied to the
Bedawin of the Syro-Arabian desert. — 21. Cp. Jer 50^^. — Yelpers]
the D^^V, whatever the name precisely means (see phil. n.),
appear in other descriptions of desolation, 23^^ 34^^, Jer 50^^. —
Shriekers] DTlNf ; precise meaning uncertain : cp. — ^, to cough ;
-.U-^, a shriek', the Assyr. ahu may mean y«r^<«/ (Del.), but this
beast is probably mentioned just below in y.'^-. (& echo! —
Ostriches] cp. 34^8 ^^20^ Mic i^ Job 10^'^ .— Satyrs] D^^VJ^ is
commonly used of he-goats^ though usually in the phrase Cty T'VtJ^,
lit. a hairy one of the goats. RV renders he-goats here, but the in-
244 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
troduction of domestic animals is improbable. Here as in 34^*,
Lv 17'^, 2 Ch iii^, 2 K 238 (point D^iyb^), we must think of
demonic animals, howling after the wont of demons and jinn
in unfrequented places, of a hairy nature and perhaps goat-like
in form ; see EBi. s.v. Satyr. — 22. Howling beasts] D^^K (34^*>
Jer 50^9 1) are perhaps wolves^ perhaps jackals, DB i. 620. —
Jackals] D'*3n (or wolves, DB i. 620) made mournful noises
(Mic i^), and frequented desolate spots (34^^ Jer ^^^ \o^'^).
19. naSHD] «<?wtf« verbi (c^. G-K. 45*?) with nx ; cp. ii'n. — 20. ntyn n^]
Jer 50^^ + my; if niy is inserted here, then v.^** ** is 3 : 3, at present it is
exceptionally 2 : 3. — V.r] = '?nK: : cp. G-K. d^k. (&'^r\^.. — 21. d"x] if the
text be correct in 23^', Ps 72^, the word may be used of human beings : some
therefore derive from the root nix, ^^, to be parched, and give it the meaning
desert dweller. Another possible derivation is from the root i^^t ^0 yelp
(Dozy). Desert dweller, or yelper, would be applicable to many animals.
Wild cats (Bochart, Hieroz. iii. c. 14) is badly supported by .^j^, which is
from another root. The meaning was already obscure to the early translators :
®rU5 here render by a general term for wild beasts, ^ here and in 341',
Jer 50^* by Jion, which by no means necessarily means monkeys (Walton) :
in 34" f& has daifiSvia, in Jer 50** IvMXfiara, U dracones. — 22. njyi] sing,
pred., pi. subj. following (G-K. 145^) : yet it is suspicious that this cstr.
should occur in just one of several similar sentences. Whether ®r's icarot/c^-
ffovffip implies a reading i3Dri is doubtful. — vnuoVN] its widows, i.e. deserted
palaces ! (Ki.). But read n'nuDnK. — nny . . . y\'\p] since the pred. precedes,
ry was not necessarily meant to be masc. (8^ n.).
XIV. i-4a. The restoration of Israel. — Babylon must
fall (ch. 13), and that immediately (13^^'^'^); for (14I) it is
Yahweh's gracious purpose to set free the Jews from their
present captivity, and to re-establish them in Canaan (vv.^^-) :
restored to Canaan, the Jews will sing a paean (14^^- 2^) over the
fall of the king of Babylon. — These verses are probably an edi-
torial link (see above, p. 233); even the distichs in vv.^^- hardly
formed the original conclusion of the poem in ch. 13, which is
rather to be found at 13^2 (•> ^^ ^) ; and vv.^*- ^^•, which are prose, are
marked off from both the poem that precedes and that which
follows. Whether the editor composed the distichs in vv.^^* or
derived them from elsewhere {e.g. Zee i'^) is uncertain.
Du., al. treat 14^"^ as prose, Cond. as poetry, throughout. It requires
some audacity to detect poetry in vv.^- ^ ; and v.^ would yield but a poor
distich 4 : 4, even if the last clause were omitted. But v.^** **• ^' * are as a
XIII. 20-XIV. 4 245
matter of fact two distichs {3 : 3) of lines parallel in sense, and ^^ a monostich
of 3 accents : v.'*'* ' is 3 : 3 or 3 : 2, according as Dn'rJ33 be read as one or
two accents.
1 For Yahweh will have pity on Jacob,
And will again choose Israel;
And he will settle them on their ground.
And the ger will join himself unto them,
And they will become members of the House of Jacob.
2 And peoples will take them and bring them to their place, and
the House of Israel will possess themselves of them on the
ground of Yahweh for slaves and slave-girls,
^ And they will be captors to their captors,
And the lords of their (former) task-masters.
8 And it shall come to pass in the day that Yahweh giveth
thee rest from thy toil and turmoil, and from the hard service
which thou wast made to serve,* thou shalt utter this taunt-song
against the king of Babylon, and say —
la. b. Cp. Zee 1^7 2I6. — I. Por Yahweh'] (& and Yahweh.
— Will again choose'] the first choice was at the beginning of
the nation's history : Dt 7®^-, Ezk 20^*^'. Yahweh's choice of Israel
is a favourite idea of the Deutero-Isaiah's : see 41^'- 43^° 44^S
and Dr. LOT^, p. 238.— ic Cp. Zee 2^^ and Ezk 3712. w " I will
bring you into the land of Israel . . . and I will settle you upon
your ground." n''3n is generally used of placing a person in a
particular place after his removal from another; cp. 46'^, Gn 19^*,
Jos 623, Lv 24^2^ Nu 15^. — The ger] the term originally denoted
a person not of the same tribe or people as those among whom
he lived, but enjoying at their hands certain conceded (as
distinct from inherited) social rights and privileges. Such rights
and privileges naturally carried with them some accommodation
on the part of the ger to Jewish religious practices ; for example,
it was incumbent on the Jews to concede the privileges, and on
the ger to observe the laws, of the Sabbath (Ex 20^° 23^^^ ; yet as
late as the Deuteronomic code the ger was no full member of
the holy nation : he might eat unclean food (Dt 14^^). In P
the term has become purely religious ; persons not Israelite by
descent may by accepting the rite of circumcision become as full
members of the community as those born Jews, and subject to
the same rights and duties (see, e.g.^ Nu 15^^ n.). P seems to
246 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
contemplate such persons as were united geographically with the
Jewish community in Palestine. Later even this limitation
disappears from the word : the ger is any person not of Jewish
descent who becomes a convert to the Jewish religion, a proselyte ;
it is this last sense that the word bore to some of the Greek
translators, for in some books "13 is rendered by ttpootJXvto?, and
with this sense it is used in the Mishna (Levy, NHB, s.v.). In
the present passage the term probably has much the same sense
as in P, and is very nearly equal to convert or proselyte. The
restored Jewish community will be enlarged by the inclusion of
men of other nations, who, seeing what Yahweh has done for
His people (cp. Ps 126^), will seek to be united with them.
Foreigners who do not become converts will pass into the
possession of the restored people, as slaves and slave-girls.
The writer contemplates for the world at large two alternatives —
conversion to Judaism, or enslavement to the Jews : cp. the
alternative presented elsewhere (6o^°"^2) — conversion or sub-
mission.—^<?m himself] 7\yy^ is used of the close relationship of
husband and wife (Gn 29^*), of Levites and priests (Nu 18^), and
also of religious union which is elsewhere defined as union witli
Yahweh ; see 563* ^, Jer 50^, and especially, as parallel to the
present usage, Zee 2^'^ "and many nations shall join themselves
unto Yahweh . . . and shall become his (ffir) people, and they
(ffir) shall dwell in thy midst." — Andthey'\ the plural pronoun carries
on the sing, collective term ger. — Will become members of] nSDJ,
too, denotes close attachment : see 182^ (Kal), Job 30^^ (in
MT Pual), and especially 1826^^ (Hithp.) ; Hab 2^^^ is probably
corrupt. — 2. And peoples shall take them and bring them] cp.
4922. — To their place] their country or home ; cp. e.g. Nu 242^. —
The ground of Yahweh] Canaan. Cp. " the land of Yahweh,"
Hos 9^; "the holy ground," Zee 2^^. Restored to their land,
the Jews will need slaves, which the later law forbade them to
seek from those of their own race (Lv 25*^^-) ; they will therefore
subject to slavery those of the nations who do not seek and
obtain incorporation in the Jewish community as gerim (v.^ n.).
The tables will be turned : those who had enslaved the Jews will
now become their slaves. Babylon for the moment seems to be
lost sight of, or rather has become a generic term for all
oppressors of the Jews : the writer lives at a time when many
nations at one time or another had enslaved the Jews. The
XIV. 2-21 247
phrase slaves and slave-gtrls (ninSKn onay) is frequent {e.g. Gn
1 2^^ 20^* 30*3 Jer 34®^-) ; as compared with the synonymous nox,
nriBB^ rather points to more servile conditions, or the more
menial nature of the tasks exacted (BDB, s.w.). Not only
the thought, but the phraseology in v.^ seems to be affected
by Lv 25*^^- ; irionn is confined to this passage, P (Lv 25^, Nu
32^® 3^54 3413), and Ezk 47^^; here and in Lv 25^ the objects
possessed are slaves, in the other passages land. So the vb.
rm probably echoes Lv 25^^- *^- ^^ and refers to domestic rule, not
to political dominion, which RV suggests; B^i3, task-master, is
used as in Ex 3^ 5^ Job 3^^ ; below in v.* rather differently. —
Captors to their captor s'\ Jg ^^.
3. The exiled nation is now addressed : ct. vv.^'*. — Giveth
thee rest] releases thee from servitude ; with this use of n^Dn, cp.
that of m: in Ex 2312, Dt s^S Job 3^^. In Dt. (e.g. 2$^^) the
Hiphil is rather differently used : see Che. Introd. 71. — Toit\ cp.
88^, Ps 1272. — Turmoif] Ti"i denotes strong mental agitation pro-
ceeding from various causes, here the disquiet of the slave who
lives in fear of " the voice of the taskmaster " (Job 3^^, cp. 26). —
The hard service] Dt 26^, Ex i^* 6» (P).— In 13 Tay "1K'«, lit.
wherewith it was worked with thee, the Pual (Dt 2i^t) is the passive
of '3 ^3y, lit. to work by means of, Lv 25*^, Ex i^*, Ezk 34^^ etc.
— 4. Thou shalt take up] on the lips, and so utter \ cp. i K 8^^
Jer 7^8, and the noun NKID, 13^ n. — Taunt-song] so may f>tJ^ be
rendered here and in Hab 2^, Mic 2* ; on other meanings, see
Numbers, pp. 299 f., 344 f., xiiif., where it is suggested that the
following poem may have been modelled on the ancient
m'shalim which used to be actually recited (Nu 21^7), and of
which many probably still existed in and after the Exile.
XIV. 4,h-2i.— The Fall of the Tyrant,
The dominant rhythm is clearly 3:2; parallelism is occasionally between
entire periods of 5 accents (see w.'* '• ^'^) ; but far more frequently it is
between the period of 3 and the period of 2 accents. The translation is'
arranged to bring into relief the more frequent form of parallelism.
Down to v."" and in ^^^' "• '^- "• **'■*• "*• ^ the rhythm is for the most
part obviously 3 : 2. But vv.'* ^^- ^ are 4 : 2, unless we omit ni.T in the one
case and B"Nn in the other ; and **• '• '^^' *• are 2 : 2, and so also is '^* ^ in |^,
but prefix yn. V. '*'*'• ^ would be 3 : 3 if ony is part of the line (but see n.).
On the obviously mutilated text of v."""^* see notes.
The first twenty-one distichs (vv.*'''''^) are clearly marked off, as Ew.
248 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
already perceived, into three equal strophes of 7 distichs each. It is probable
that this equality of strophes was maintained throughout, but the mutilated
text in vv."'^ prevents certainty on this point. ^ contains slightly less than
fourteen distichs between vv.^* and ^^ : but with the addition of vv.^* ^ it
would contain considerably more.
On the structure of the poem see especially Budde in ZA TIV, 1882, pp.
12-15, where some earlier theories of strophic division are noticed : Bickell,
Carmina Vet. Test. (1882) p. 202 f., and Wiener Z^itschr. filr die Kunde des
Morgenlandesy viii. loif. ; W. H. Cobb, mJBLit. xv. iSflf.
I.
^ How hath the Tyrant ceased,
The Terror (?) ceased !
^ Yahweh hath broken the staff of the wicked,
The rod of the rulers;
* Which smote the peoples in wrath,
With smiting unceasing.
Which angrily trampled (?) on nations,
With * trampling ' (?) unrestrained.
^ All the earth is at rest, is quiet.
They have broken forth into a ringing cry;
^ The fir-trees, too, have rejoiced at thee.
The cedars of Lebanon —
"Since thou hast lain down, there cometh not up
The feller against us."
2.
• Sheol beneath is thrilled at thee.
Meeting thine advent ;
Arousing for thee the shades,
All the bell-wethers of Earth,
Making rise up from their thrones
All the kings of the nations.
1® They shall all of them answer
And say to thee,
*' ThoUy too, art made weak as we,
Unto us art made like."
^^ Brought down unto Sheol is thy pomp.
The music of thy lutes;
Beneath thee maggots are spread,
And (of) worms is thy coverlet.
1
XIV. 4-21 249
^* How art thou fallen from Heaven,
O Shining One, son of the dawn !
*How' art thou hewn down to the earth,
. . . of ' all ' nations !
^3 Thou that hadst said in thine heart,
"Heaven will I scale;
Above the stars of God
Will I set on high my throne.
That I may sit (enthroned) in the Mount of
Assembly,
In the recesses of the North :
^* I will ascend over the summits of the clouds,
Will be like the Most High."
^ Yet to Sheol shalt thou be brought down,
To the recesses of the Pit
!• They that see thee look narrowly at thee,
To thee give attention —
"Is this the man that caused earth to thrill,
That caused kingdoms to quake;
^"^ That made the world like a wilderness.
And overthrew its cities?"
• • * • • • •
18 AH the kings of the nations,
They all have lain down in glory,
Each one in his house;
1® But tAou art cast forth * tom bless,*
Like an abhorred * untimely birth ' (?)
. ....... the slain.
That are thrust through with the sword,
That go down to the stones of the Pit,
As a corpse trodden under foot.
2* Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial.
250 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
5-
^^ For thy land hast thou ruined,
Thy people hast thou slain.
Never more shall it be named,
The seed of evil-doers.
21 Prepare a butchery for his sons,
For the iniquity of their fathers,
That they rise not and possess the earth,
And fill the face of the world.
The poem expresses the exultation over the fall of a Tyrant
who had treated the peoples of the world with unsparing and
unremitting severity : in the first strophe the world-wide terror,
which his career had inspired, and the world-wide relief and joy
at his fall, are effectively contrasted. The second strophe
illustrates in another way the supreme position of the Tyrant in
the world of his time : his entrance to Sheol is depicted : he is
greeted by all the kings of the earth, who are amazed that one
who had been so much greater and more powerful than they, is
now weak as one of themselves. In the third strophe the over-
weening pride and ambition of the Tyrant is pictured : not
content with conquering earth, he would have conquered heaven
and dethroned the supreme God and King ; actually he attains
to the lowest depths of Sheol. Such is the fate of his spirit : the
fourth strophe dwells on the fate of his dead body : it receives
no royal burial in the mausoleum which he had built for himself,
but lies unburied, one of a heap of carcases on the battlefield
where he fell. The final lines, or strophe (vv. 20^-21)^ are more
miscellaneous ; first, they find reason for the Tyrant's fate in the
fact that he had ruined his own land and people as well as others,
and then assert that he and his race shall pass out of memory ;
and finally they call for the slaughter of his children that no
future member of his line may repeat his career.
How far does this poem depict the actual career of a single
definite historical individual ? How much of it was determined
by certain definite events, how much by the imagination of the
poet ? Of course the speeches of the cedars in v.^, of the shades
in v.i®, of the Tyrant himself in vv.^^f.^ and of the people on the
battlefield after the battle, v.^^ all of which betray a keen
XIV. 4-21 251
dramatic sympathy and power of expression, are due to the
poet's imagination. But how much more? Had the Tyrant
actually fallen when the poem was written ? Or does the poet
merely throw himself forward in imagination to the day and the
scene which he feels would be the fitting conclusion to the career
of the cruel and arrogant conqueror under whose government he
has lived and suffered ?
If v.^^ be imaginative prophecy, then it is simplest to see in
the entire poem a paean over Assyria, or Babylon, personified (cp.
io^-i3), or " totum corpus Regum Assyriorum et Babylonicorum "
(Vitr.), rather than over a particular Assyrian or Babylonian king.
So it is of the character and achievements of a people rather than
of a single definite monarch that Ezekiel thinks, even when he
uses the term " king of Tyre," " king of Egypt," in prophecies
that have several points of contact with this poem : see Ezk
28-32. For a briefer example of a lament written to suit merely
anticipated and not actual conditions, see Am 5^
But if v.i® refers to an actual historical event, it refers to
details of which nothing is otherwise known, whether the king
in question be Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar (Jer., l^i.), or
Nabonidus (Hitz., Du.). It is indeed recorded that Sargon was
" not buried in his house " (cp. v.^^) ; but this does not necessarily
imply that he died a violent death, and lay unburied (cp. v.^^) :
moreover, Sargon certainly did not involve his country and people
in ruin (v.^o) : within twelve days of his death his son Senna-
cherib was recognised as king, and Assyria suffered no serious
check for half a century after Sargon's death.
In Altor. Forschungeity i. 193 f., Winckler attempted to explain v.** as an
allusion to the murder of Sennacherib in 682 B.C. ; this obviously inadequate
explanation with the claim that the poem was written by Isaiah (some sixty
years after his Call !) was adopted by W. H. Cobb in JBLit. xv. 18 ff.
Later, Winckler {ib. pp. 410 ff., KAT*^ pp. 74 f.) advanced the far more
satisfactory theory that the allusion is to the death of Saigon ; an ominous, but
through mutilation obscure, reference in the Eponym canon for the year 705
B.C. is illumined by K 4730, an inscription of Sennacherib (also mutilated) in
which he says, " the death of Sargon . . . in his house he was not buried . . .
{tna bttiiu la ktb-ru)^ the transgression of Sargon, my father by expiation will
I expiate : I will [blot out] the transgression which they (? he) committed against
a god . . . against the gods of Akkad ; because he the curse of the king of the
gods up [on himself] brought, in his house he was not b[uried] — ina btti-
su la ^i-biry Recognising that vv.^*^^* were unsuitable to Sargon, Wi.
held that the ode written in 705 B.C. extended from v.*** to v.** only. It is
252 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
not impossible that an editor may have found in a collection of m^shalim
(v.* n. ; Numbers^ pp. xiiif.) a paean over Sargon and, adding a strophe
^yy 20b-2ij suitable to the Fall of Babylon, have given it here as a song to be
sung when " Babylonian " tyranny was ended. It would not necessarily
follow that Isaiah was the author of the song : his attitude towards Assyria
{not the king) in lo**'^^ is, in spite of some resemblances, different. There
are, however, some linguistic usages and some ideas in the poem which would
perhaps find a more easy explanation if even vv.***'^^ were written later than
the age of Sargon. See notes below on rJJ, v.* ; d'Wd, v.* ; mo, v.* ; nn nxs,
V.' ; iv'?y, Most High, v." ; "na ( = Sheol), v.^* ; nutrn, v.^^ ; hi, v.^^. Are the
resemblances between this poem and Ezekiel, especially chs. 28-32 (see
Comm. on vv.^^"^'* ^'), due to the dependence of Ezekiel on this poem, or of
this poem on Ezekiel, or to the fact that both belong to the same century?
Certainly this poem far excels Ezek. in poetical and dramatic power, but
that is precarious proof of priority. The same questions arise with regard
to 3722-29 . bjjt^ there is not the same difference in poetic quality ; Is I4*'''2i
and 37^'^ might be the work of the same hand. Some of the conceptions
of Sheol and life after death found here have no earlier parallels in the OT
than Ezekiel : but are they such as to demand that the author of this ode must
have lived as late as the Exile? see, on the one hand, Che. Introd. 69 f., on
the other, Gunkel, Schopfung u. Chaos.
4b-8. The Relief of the World at the Fall of the
Tyrant. — How] so v.^^ . ^p^ p ^2. — The tyrani\ cp. Zee 9^ ; but
in V.2 (n.), 9^ ^yi has a different meaning. — The Terror] uncertain.
J§ nnmD, has been rendered the golden city (EV), the exactress
of gold (AVmarg.), the exactress (RVmarg.), tribute (U) ; but all
these renderings rest on the illegitimate assumption (cp. Ki., Ibn
Ezra) that a Hebrew noun would be derived from an Aramaic
form (sm, gold) of which the Hebrew form (ant) was in constant
use. If 1 is, as often, a mis-written 1, the root is 3m which is
used in 3^, in close connection with K'Ji, of the vulgar bluster of
the inferior when social restraint is withdrawn ; here, where the
attitude of the superior, or stronger, is in question, the nuance
would be different : Che. renders raging^ Box insolent raging. But
since in Ca. 6^ STnn means something like to terrify and Ar.
e^jb. certainly and often means tofear^ namo may rather mean
Terror^ this idea being associated with tyranny or oppression as
in 51^^. — 5. Yahweh has broken] perhaps originally Broken has
been : see note on rhythm. — The staff , , , the rod] cp. lo*^ 9^
The genitives that follow each term may be appositional (Kon.
iii. 337^. d), so that the phrases mean the wicked staffs the imperious
rod] the second phrase is rather differently used in Ezk 19^^
The king, or nation, which should have corrected the wicked, has
XIV. 4-1 I 253
itself proved wicked: cp. lo'-^l But if this view of the con-
struction be correct, since the terms Q^VK^T (i3")» D^^t^ (49^ 52^)
are plural, the writer has not in view merely a single individual.
— 6. Which, smote] the sing. HDO refers back to rod and staff:
cp. V.29, — Trampling] J^ persecution : but see phil. n. — 7. All
the earth is . . , quiet] DpK^ occurs in 18*, the Hiph. in 7*
30^5 3217. It is the vb. used in Judges {e.g. i^'^) of the quiet
enjoyed after one of the Judges had delivered Israel from a foreign
lord: it is also used of the relief of slaves in Sheol in being quit
of their taskmasters (Job s^^f- 26)._8. Cp. 372*, Hab 2I7. On a
rock-relief in the Wady Brissa in Lebanon, Nebuchadnezzar is
represented " breaking the cedars with bare hands." But cedars
were felled to satisfy the needs of most Mesopotamian monarchs
and of Egyptian monarchs too: see Jeremias, ATAO, p. 494;
KAT^i p. 190. Hebrew poets often represent inanimate objects
participating in the joys of others : see, e.g., 55^2^ Ps ^6^^^- : more
rarely is the emotion represented as due to a cause peculiarly
affecting them alone. See Koberle, Natur u. Geist, p. 105. —
Since thou hast lain down] in death ; v.^^ 43^^, Job 14^2^
4. name] Del. suggested p/ace where they are made to pine away, from an
otherwise unknown 2m = 3Kn, or an. Very improbable. It is commonly
supposed that fit's ^irt<nroi;5curTiJs (whence also Sb) implies n^rrva ; but 'id is
an abstract, ivKrirovS. a personal noun meaning one who presses hard upon
another : this would indeed form an admirable parallel to rJ3, but it would
require TO.V instead of rsrav. Perhaps ffi read irran roxf, but in view of the
anarthrous ifJi this is not likely to have been the original text. Che. {SBOT,
p. 199) conjectures rri2]ir$ ^^i'. cp. v.'. — 6. n^o] G-K. I3cwr.— mo-'nSa] of
non-cessation : a rare use of 'n'?a : BDB, p. 11 63. With mo, cessation, cp. the
use of the vb. in 11", Am 6^. In i' 31" the noun has a different meaning —
apostasy.— f^{VO . . . mn] the noun should doubtless be cognate with the vb.
as in the previous line — nan . . . hdd. If mn is correct, the noun (cstr.) was
nrra ; but nm to rule, though sometimes used of hard or strict rule, does not
seem strong enough in the context. Either mn has here exceptionally the sense
to trample, like j^»^, or to chastise, like j)5 ; or we may restore nino nni :
cp. HIT in 41', Ps 144^ and in NH to beat, stamp down. — Ti'^ri 'Va] MT
assumes a rare use of '^a with the finite vb. ; see BDB 1153. Probably ifon
was intended to be an infin. or a noun. — 7. nn inss] 44^3 49I8 54I 5512^ ^^^^
without nil, 52*, Ps 98*. The only other occurrence of the root nsB is the
Piel, meaning to break in pieces, in Mic 3*. There is no secure pre-exilic
instance of njT meaning ioyous cry : cp. Che. Introd. p. 268.
9-11. The Tyrant's reception in Sheol.— This strophe
depicts the excitement and emotions of the inhabitants of Sheol
254 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
at the descent into their midst of a monarch whose fame ha
reported him so great that he seemed likely to escape the
common lot that had befallen even monarchs before him.
These kings of earlier days, according to a prevalent belief that
the distinctions of life were in some degree perpetuated in Sheol
(cp. e.g. Ezk 3221^-, I S 28^^), sit each on his throne : they
respectfully rise to greet the new-comer and address him with
words that reflect at once their sense of his greatness and a
certain satisfaction that he is now made weak as they.
9. Sheot] different conceptions of Sheol mingle in the writer's
mind : it is a realm beneath (cp. 5"^**^) the earth ; it is a com-
munity of the dead who step forward to meet the newly dead
king at his advent among them ; it is a person who has all the
dead, even the dead kings of the nations^ under his control :
with this personification cp. 28^^- 1^, where Sheol is a monarch
with whom those who would avoid death would fain make
treaties ; commoner is the personification of Sheol as a monster
with an insatiable appetite for (5^^, Hab 2^, Pr i^^ 2720 io^^\ or
a hunter who snares (Ps 18^ 116^), the living. On these and
other ideas with regard to the dead which appear in this passage,
see, further, EBi. 1338 ff. ; Hastings, DB i. 739 f., v. 668 f. ; F.
Schwally, Das Leben nach dem Tode ; A. Jeremias, Die Bab. Ass.
Vorstellungen vom Leben nach de7ti Tode . . . mit beriicksichtigung
der AT Parallelen \ S. Langdon, Baby. Eschatology^ in Essays . . .
presented . . . to C. A. Briggs (191 1), pp. 141-161 ; and C.
Griineisen, Der Ahnenkultus^ pp. 41-60 (with full references to
comparative material). — Is thrilled] with excitement at strange
and portentous news : Mi, to quake (of the earth, 5^^, i S 14^^; of
kingdoms, 23^^), is also used of various emotions such as fear,
V.16 64I 3210^-, or grief, 2 S i()\—The shades'] the D"'«B"i are the
inhabitants of the world of the dead, probably so called as the
weak (cp. nD"i, e.g. 13'^), or enfeebled (cp. v.^^), continuations of
the strong and lusty living. The term occurs also in 26'^^' 1^,
Job 265, Pr 2I8 9I8 21I6, Ps 88iit, and in Phoenician: cp. e.g.
" Mayest thou have no seed among the living under the sun, nor
resting-place with the shades" (D^KD"i nx 235^) — Tabnith
Inscr. c. 300 B.C. (Cooke, NSI, p. 26). Whether the term
used for the vanished giant race {e.g. Gn 152O: cp. "the valley
of Rephaim," 17*^) is identical in origin, as well as in form, is not
absolutely certain; but see, further, Schwally, in ZATW^ 1898,
XIV. 9-15 255
pp. 127-135. — The hell-wether s\ D^iny, he-goats^ used specifically
of the leaders of the flock (Jer 50^), and figuratively of human
beings as in 34**, Jer 51^^, Ezk 39^^. — II. No throne in Sheol for
the once proud monarch : dethroned and disgraced at the last
in life he has nothing in death but a bed of maggots and a
coverlet of worms : to this has come the pomp (pw as 4^ 23*
do^*^) and gay music (5^*) amid which he lived.
9. D'pn . . . niiy] 3rd pfF. : cp. C iD'pK . . . nryK ; but if the vbs. were
pff. the forms should have been fern. Read therefore opn . . . Tiy — infin.
abs. (G-K. 1 13-4).— II. yx'] Pual pf. 3rd masc. ; noT is ace. ; G-K. \2\a. b.
— I'DDD] many MSS 103D ; r\^'^^^ coveringy 23'^, Ezk 27', Lv 9^' ; but also
with a mere difference of pointing (np??), Gn 8^' (J) and several times in P.
I2-IS The Tyrant attains, not to the heaven of his
ambition, but to the lowest hell. — 12. The Tyrant is half
compared, half (for the moment) identified, with the radiant
hero of some astral myth. A similar instance of mingled com-
parison and identification of an earthly power with a mythic
figure occurs in Ezk 28^^"^^; whence the myth came, whether
from Babylon or Phoenicia,* and what was its exact form is
uncertain. The natural phenomenon which gave rise to the
myth, and still affects the phraseology of this passage, may be
the contrast between the brilliance of a star, such as Venus,t at
the seasons when it is apparent, and its total disappearance at
other seasons : or it may be " the overpowering of the temporary
brilliance of the morning star by the rays of the sun" {EBi,
2828) ; for other views, see next n. but one. — Shining one] " In
the happy realms of light clothed with transcendant brightness."
hh'^n is to be connected with 9?^]^ to shine (13^®, Job 29^ 312^ 41IO) .
Jjfe, to begin to shine : cp. Jlii, new moon, and Ass. ellu, bright.
fflr renders well cwo-^opos (cp. <j>oi(T<f>6pos, 2 P i^^); U Lucifer (cp.
Lk 10^8). Cp. the Arabic name for Venus if jbj, the bright
shining one. — Son of the dawn] so called because the luminary
in question shines at dawn : (& 6 vpon avarikktav (cp. Rev 22^^).
It would, of course, be easy, if necessary, for "iriK^ to read "int?
(3^8 n.) and render son of the moon, as VVinckler has suggested
(Gesch, Isr. ii. 24) : then the shining one might be the new
crescent moon (JiU); or, retaining "iHK', we might suppose that
* Cp. Gunkel, Schopfung u. Chaos, 132-134 ; KAT* 464, 565.
t Cp. Jeremias, ATAO 568, iia
256 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
h^'^n is the waning crescent moon {KAT^ 565), which is seen
in the morning sky. — Hewn down to the earth] so the Tyrian
king is described as cast down from Eden and the mount of God
to the earth, Ezk 22>^^-^^. The vb. does not necessarily imply the
figure of a tree: see 222^, Jer 502^. — . . . of all nations] 7)3 ^?^
is not transitive (RV) in spite of Ex 17^^ MT (see Dr. ad loc.) :
it may be corrupt (cp. S) and conceal an epithet like " Hammer
of all the earth," Jer 50^8 : or the line may have depicted the
shining one lying powerless on the corpses (nV13 for D^li*) of those
whom he had led in his warfare against the Most High. — 13 f.
The boasting of the tyrant is not merely hyperbolic and figura-
tive; he is identified for the moment with, or represented as
renewing the presumptuous role of, the mythic hero (v.^^^. The
opening boast (v.^^- ^) might indeed be mere hyperbole (cp.
Job 20^), but not what follows : the wicked may in his pride act
as though God did not govern the earth (cp. Job 2212^.), but he
does not think of dethroning the Most High and taking over the
administration of Heaven : yet this is precisely what the speaker
here means (cp. Ezk 28^) ; he is guided, as Milton very correctly
interprets, by
** Ambitious aim
Against the throne and monarchy of God."
The Most High, according to the ancient (Babylonian) concep-
tions which here govern the poet, sat enthroned above the stars
of God in the highest point of Heaven, or, as the next line puts
it, in the Mountain where the gods assembled in the recesses of
the North. — The Mountain of Assembly] cp. "the Mountain of
God," Ezk 28i«; for Assembly (njno), cp. the Tent of Assembly
(nyiD i^nx), which may originally have meant a tent for the
assembly of the gods, though to the Hebrews it came to bear
quite another meaning (Ex 33^"^0> ^"^ "^^7 have had a con-
nection with the Babylonian conception of the World-Mountain
piercing into heaven, where the gods assembled to determine
destinies {KAT^ 592, cp. p. 355 with references).^ — That I may
sit] enthroned; cp. lo^^, Ps 61^, and frequently of Yahweh, e.g.
Ps 2* 9* 29^^. — The recesses] lit. the two flanks ('•DDI*), but
idiomatically the most distant parts-, see 37^*, i S 24*, Am 6^®,
Jer 622. xhe recesses of the Norths in Ezk 386- ^^ 392, has not the
♦ Gunkel, Schdpfungy p. 133 ; Che. {SBOT\
XIV. I3-20 257
same sense as in the present passage to which the difficult
passage in Ps 48^ may be more closely parallel ; here, as the
context clearly shows, it is the seat of the god. Anu, the chief
member of the principal divine triad of the Babylonians, had his
throne in heaven, and, apparently, was particularly localised in
the Northern heaven, at the north pole: see KAT^ SS^f-;
ATACP- 2of.— 14. The Most High] ^"^^V here, as in Nu 2\^\ in
the mouth of a foreigner. Very rare in pre-exilic, but a
favourite term with post-exilic, writers : see Che. Origin of the
Psalter^ p. 84. Note also that, according to Philo Byblus, *EXtovi/
was in use among the Phoenicians (Eus. Pr, Ev. i. 10). — 15. The
Recesses of the Pit] ct. "the Recesses of the North," v.^^ (n.).—
Pitj 113, " poetical and late " (BDB), is a synonym for Sheol
(cp. e.g. Ps 88^, Ezk 2620 32^^-24), conceived as resembling a
vast cistern, roomy below but with a narrow mouth or opening
(Ps 69i«— 1K3).
12. nyiJj] TX may be prefixed for rhythm's sake. — V^'n] MT intends the
word to mean Aowt (15^ n.) : cp. (& howl in the morning. — D'U Vy rVm] (K
6 dkVwirkXKMv irpbs irdvTa ra (Ovrj, reading nSir, which must be wrong, for
B'Vin, and Sa before D'U, which may be right. With e''?n, cp. Job 14^", Jl 4^".
i6-2oa. The once all-conquering tyrant lies on the
battlefield where he fell, a rotting and unburied
corpse. — 16. Cp. the terms in which Yahweh speaks of His
treatment of the proud king of Tyre : " I cast thee out upon the
earth, before kings I set thee for them to feast their eyes upon
thee ... I turned thee into ashes upon the earth in the sight of
all them that saw thee (^^K'^ ^3, as here). All that knew thee
among the peoples were appalled at thee," Ezk 28^''-^*. — Zook
narrowly] the vb. is also used of peering through a window,
Ca 2®; of the high priest Simon looking out of the Temple,
Sir 50*; of the intense and hungry look of a (poor) man on
another's (well-laden) table. Sir 402^; of God's all-seeing gaze
out of heaven over men, Ps 33^* : with the last usage, cp. NH
nnasyn. Providence. — l6c. d. The same kind of astonished
question occurs in 23"^. — 17c, 18. It is uncertain, probably owing
to textual corruption at this point, whether all or any of the
words of these lines belonged to the speech that began in v.^**'.
From the resumption of the address to the king (cp. w.^^f.^
16a. bj^ ^g may assume that the speech has ended before v.^*,
and v. ^8^- *', which is antithetical to v.^*, should naturally also
VOL. I. — 17
258 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
fall outside the speech. V.^'^*' (J^ : ^ omits the last word) may
be rendered his prisoners he released not hojuewards ; if f^ is sub-
stantially correct, then v.^^ all the kings of the nations is best
regarded as the second and shorter line of the distich, and as
an explanatory apposition to his prisoners (Du.) ; this, as com-
pared with the verse division of J^, RV, has the merit of
maintaining the rhythm of the poem unbroken through vv.^^^*
while it still leaves the antithesis of vv.^^^* ® and i^- ^ well
stated : all the kings of the nations died indeed, but received
honourable burial, and now lie each one in his house, i.e. in the
mausoleum which each had built for himself; whereas (v.^^) the
king of Babylon is flung forth, dishonoured, one of a mass of
common corpses that lie unburied like his own. But this inter-
pretation of vv.^^'i^ is open to two objections, the second of
which lies even more forcibly against J^, RV. (i) Du. himself
perceives, and states, and attempts to meet the first of these
difficulties : ** Strictly speaking, the kings of the nations cannot
have been buried each in his house, if they had not been
allowed by Chaldaea to return home. The poet doubtless,
means that the kings were released owing to the fall of the
Chaldaean, so that they recovered their kingdoms and died in
peace ; and he is guilty of a hysteron proteron in representing
them as already dead before the now - expiring Babylonian.
But the poet may be pardoned for what would not be tolerated
in prose." (2) Unreadiness to release prisoners (ordinary,
common captives, according to J^) is not the greatest of enor-
mities ; and therefore v.^'^*' comes as a rather violent anti-climax
after the preceding description of the king's creating world-wide
desolation and terror. If the main point were the capture of the
kings, the anti-climax would be less ; and this we could obtain
in a slightly emended text from which nn^3 is omitted as in ffi,
and vh\ "ID« (J^ ^) is read for \^ 1'»-»^DK,
He fettered and released not
All the kings of the nations.
But the hysteron proteron (see above) still remains. Not im-
probably v.^'^*' is seriously corrupt. — I9-20a. The Tyrant's
corpse, unlike those of other kings, which, retaining something
of royal state, rest each in its own mausoleum (v.^^), lies outcast,
trodden under foot, where it fell pierced with the sword in battle.
XIV. 19, 20 259
So much remains clear : but we have the disjecta membra rather
than the whole of the distichs in which the poet indicated the
contrast to v.^^. — Art cast fortH\ the vb. is used of corpses left
to lie unburied (34^, Jer 14^^ 36^^), or hurried unceremoniously
into the nearest available tomb (2 K 13^^), or, like those of
malefactors, thrown down to be covered over with stones
(Jos 829). The vb. is followed in ?^ by Ti3pD, which might be
rendered (i) from thy tomb; but the passage is clearly speaking
not of disinterment, but of non-interment; or, though much
less naturally after napKTl, (2) (far) away from thy tomb ; see
BDB 578a, b. It would be better to treat "j as dittographic and
read laplO, tombless (Dr.) : cp. Ps 527(^nso, tentless), Job 1 1^*. (5 Iv
opicriv {v.l. tdvecriv) probably read D''"in3, on the mountains : see
phil. n. — Like an abhorred . . .] the object of comparison is
1X3, which is rendered by S, Theod., and U commonly shoot
(ii^ n.). But the adjective and noun in that case seem ill-suited
to one another. Di., feeling that abhorred or abominable (cp.
Job 15^^; navin, abomination^ e.g. i^^) is too strong an epithet
for a useless shoot cut out of a tree and thrown away, suggests
that combined with the idea of a rejected shoot is that of the
scion of a human family expelled and abhorred on account of
his badness : improbable. Other versions either gave a different
meaning to iva, or read differently : ffi v^Kpo'i, Aq. i^wp, Symm.
€KTpo)/Ma, 3r isn*; and Jer. alludes to sanies as a rendering.
Schwally {ZATW, 1891, p. 258) conjectured i>Q3, untimely birth
(Job 3^^); while Nestle {ib. 1904, pp. 127-129) claimed that
1^3 meant something like putrefying matter : cp. NH {jv:, decayed
matter^ liquid and coagulated portions of a corpse. — The slain]
cp. 10*. ^*2h might be a noun (cp. e.g. 63^), but a garment of
the slain is nonsense; better, clothed with the slain^ of which
fflt with mdny slain may be merely a paraphrase ; but in spite of
other rather similar metaphorical uses of ^2h (Job 7^, Ps 65^*),
it is doubtful whether the text is sound here. — That go down to
the stones of the Tit] MT treats mi\ like the participles that pre-
cede, as a plural ; and this is probably right. That nnv is sing.
— an instance oi yod campaginis (cp. i^i, Zee iii'^. La i^) — thou
that goes t down (Du.), is abstractly possible. (& has those that go
down to HadeSy which is probably a correct paraphrase, if not
the literal rendering of an earlier and shorter text containing
the phrase that occurs in 38^8, Ps 30* etc. If ^J3N i^x, to the
260 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
stones ofy is not a corrupt fragment that has crept into f^ since
6r, ^33X is probably an error for "i^lX, the bases of the Pit, i.e. of
Sheol (v.^^ n.), with which cp. the bases of the earth (Job 38^),
a synonym with "the recesses of the Pit" (v.^^).* Others
understand by the stones of the Pit^ the tomb or grave — the
stone or rock tomb of the rich (22^^; Ges.), or the casual
grave into which an enemy cast a fallen foe, covering him with
stones (2 S 18^''; Du.), or the stones which were rolled up to
or placed over the mouth of a grave (Mt 28^; Hitz.). — 20.
With them] with whom ? doubtful. Ew., Di. answer, with those
that go down to the stones of the pit {i.e. the graves of the rich,
see last n.), which clause they extract from v.^^ and prefix as a
casus pendens to v.^®. Du. prefixes by conjecture thy fathers —
thou shalt not be joined with them.
l6a. b. CK renders briefly, and adds (cp. CS) an explanatory koX
ipovaiv. — i6c. nm] fflr ni. — vny] nny would be correct ; '?3n is fem. — 17.
nn'a nns kS vtdk] on the wider question of the text as affected by exegesis,
see above. Note that (&^ omits the preceding clause Din viyi. dSc read
D(')n(')ON (without the suffix) or ■i(')dn (rendered collectively) instead of vtdix.
The emphatic position of the object vtdk in 5& admits of no obvious explana-
tion, and may be a further indication of corruption. Che., Marti recon-
struct w."''-^* as follows :
waS B"K I nns te*? vtdk
7)333 "ISDiy I oSa D'13 "J^D
But in'aS r'K is a feeble redundance, whereas ^'33 vh where it stands in
f^ is efifective. Kit. al. :
K^|n n'3 I nns kV vtdn^
in'3a r»K | 11333 i33t5' d'?3 di: '3'?D
But the first of these distichs, though rhythmically tolerable, is still anti-
climactic in sense, and the second distich is rhythmically bad. — nns] nn^
(MT) if Kit.'s emendation be accepted ; otherwise nn? : cp. Jer 40*. — 18.
0*73 D'i3 '3'?D S3] it would be unsafe to infer that (Sc had one only of the
words ^3, 0^3. MT takes all four words together (cp. e.g. Nu 16*,
Ezk 11^^). For the idiom in Kit.'s reconstruction, cp. 9^ — 3in 'jytsD] for
the commoner 'n 'hhn (22^). jyo occurs nowhere else in the OT, but j^*b
and Aram, jyo are common. — 19, 20a. After the first five words the
rhythmical scheme of the poem breaks down in f^. ffii differs to some extent,
but yields no satisfactory text. If iv 6pe(rtj' = Dnn3 represents an original
D'Jin3 (Du., Che.), it is nearer the original text than |^. On KaTa^aivdvTuv
eii "Adov, see above. For nJ33 ffi read iJ33 and then treated D3"id as = noDisno
(Ezk 16'). OiK icTai Kadapbv oCrws ov8k <ri> ^(xri Kadapbs may represent
something very different from mi3p3 dtik inn vh ; with '3 . . . inn k*?, cp.
• Gunkel, Schopfungu. Chaos, p. 133 ; Che. {SBOT).
n
XIV. i6-2i 261
Gn 49*. — Elaborate reconstructions such as Du. and Che., who regard vv. *•'*'•
as the mutilated fragment of five distichs, offer, are of necessity very un-
certain ; but it is unwise to invent muj yn as a fitting introduction to ^M3
while the unfitting epithet ayw is left attached to n«.
20b-2i. May no descendant of the Tyrant survive to
repeat his career. — TAy land hast thou ruined^ thy people hast
thou slain] fflr my land . . . my people^ doubtless understanding
the words to refer to Nebuchadnezzar's treatment of the Jews
(cp. Jer.). J^ means that the conqueror, who has ruined (cp.
Ezk 30^1) other lands by his conquests (v.^), has also ruined his
own. But how? Merely, like all great conquerors, who press
heavily on their land by the drain of war, and expose many of
their subjects to death in their campaigns?* This rather
inadequate explanation would apply equally well to any of the
great conquering kings of Assyria or Babylon. Or is the
meaning that the career of the conqueror has brought about the
downfall of the state and people, that the people have exchanged
the role of the conqueror for the fate of the conquered ? Then
this particular trait might fit Nabonidus, or the last king of
Assyria, or, perhaps best of all, the personified nation. — Seed of
evil-doers] ffi the evil-doer. Even if the plural is correct, the
phrase has not quite the same meaning as in i* : here it means
the descendants of the evil and hurtful kings. — 21. A butchery]
n3t3D t may denote either the act of slaughtering animals, or the
place where they are slaughtered. — Fathers] 6i^ father. — And
fill the face of the world] '^■Vwith cities — to subserve their
tyranny (Del.) : improbable. Many emendations of D^iy have
been suggested (see below), but the line is rhythmically complete
without it (Du., Marti). Both Dny and ^3B, the face of which is
not expressed by ffir, may be additions; and the original text
may have had the common parallelism earth and world (see, e.g.^
24* 34^)-
21. iDip''^3] Si seems to have the force of so that . . , not\ cp.
Ps 10'* 78^. With the exception of two not altogether certain occurrences
in Hos 7^ 9^', ^3 is confined to the later literature — chs. 26. 33. 35, and
40-66, Pr., Job, I Ch., Ps. — any] (&. iro\itiu)v, which is probably an error
for vbXeuv (Aq., Theod., Symm., and some MSS of (&), or 7roXe/Afwi' = Dny,
taken in its Aramaic sense of enemy (Dn 4'^) : cp. tJT. Among emendations
that have been suggested are D"j; (llitz.)i Q'SPV (Ew.), Dny nmn (Di.), niyn,
to be taken closely with 'nopi in v. 2' (Cobb).
* Cp. Jer., Ges., Di., al.
262 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
22-23. Yahweh promises to wipe out the Baby-
lonians, and to make of Babylon a desolate city. — This
is scarcely either poetry or the original continuation of vv.*^-2i :
see above, p. 233 f. — I will arise against] 312. The response to
V.21. — Saith] DW thrice in these verses : nowhere else in 13^-1421.
— I will cut off name and remnant] and so wipe out of existence
and memory : the response to v.^^^^- ®, cp. Zeph i^ : similar
phrases occur in i S 24^2, 2 S 14*^. Name and remnant and kith
and kin^ or more WteraWy />rogeny and posterity (1331 pj), are both
alliterative phrases: *7D3 and pi always occur together — Gn 21^3,
Job 1 819, Sir 4i5 47221 : in (^ q{ the last passage 1331 p is in
synonymous parallelism with ^"it, seed. — 23. The possession of the
porcupine] 34-^^ n. — / will sweep it away with the besom of
destruction] the proud city is implicitly compared to filth that
must be swept away : cp. for rather similar vigorous figures,
I K 1410, 2 K 2ii3.
23. .TOMBxai] probably Pilpel of ki», otherwise unknown. For a full
discussion of the form, see Konig, i. 652 f.
XIV. 24-27. — Yahweh^ s plan to destroy Assyria on the
Mountains of Palestine.
The opening words down to vh dn fall outside the rhythmical scheme, are
absent from C&, and may be editorial. The ten lines that follow fall into
5 distichs of equal (or approximately equal) lines parallel to one another in
sense. Two, or if niKas be omitted in v.^^*, three, of the distichs are 4:41
23»- b is 3 . 3 ; 25«- d 1^ 3 : 4, or, with the omission of nio\ 3 : 3.
^ Yahweh of Hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely
As I have thought, so shall it come to pass,
And as I have planned — even that shall be realised;
25 That I will break Assyria in my land,
And trample him on my mountains.
And his yoke shall remove from upon them,
And his burden from upon his shoulder shall remove.
2*^ This is the plan that hath been planned against the
whole earth.
And this is the hand that has been stretched out
against all the nations :
27 For Yahweh of Hosts hath planned, who then can annul?
And his hand is the out-stretched (hand); who then
can turn it back?
XIV. 2 2, 23; 24-27 263
This poem or fragment is unconnected with that which
precedes it ; it is separated by a concluding and, in J^, by an
initial formula ; it is also distinguished by difference of rhythm
and subject ; vv.^-^^ deal with the approaching fall of Babylon,
vv.24-27 ^ith the approaching destruction of Assyria. It is
separated from what follows by a fresh editorial note (v.^^).
Some see in the fragment a misplaced conclusion to lo*^"^- ^^-'^^
(Che.), or to io82 (Cond.), or to lo^* (Ges.), or to iS^ (Ew.);
but after any of these passages v.^^ would be necessary to explain
the ist pers. of v.^^^, and v.^^ is not rhythmical.
If the fragment is Isaiah's (cp. e.g. Du., Che. Ititrod. 79), it
may have been written during the campaign of Sennacherib;
but the phrase my mountains (v.^s), and ideas in v.^^ and v.^^
recalling Ezekiel and later writers, leave room for the suspicion
that it is the work of a post-exilic writer familiar with Isaiah's
prophecies: see Stade in ZATW\\\. 16, and Marti.
24. Yahweh . . . hath sworn] cp. Am 4^ 6^ 8*^, Gn 22^*,
and, probably, Is 5®; also, in later writings, e.g. 4523 549 62^,
Jer 22^, Ps 95". — As I have thoughi\ Nu 33^^: ntS"! occurs also
in 10'^, but it is questionable whether this clause refers back to
lo*^: the subject of the sentence is not emphasised so as to
suggest an antithesis between Yahweh's thought and Assyria's. —
As I have planned] This, like all Yahweh's (Ps 33", Pr 19"),
but unlike many human (S^^), plans, will be carried out ; for yv^
or nvy, see also 5^^ 19^2. 17 238 25I 4610, Jer 4920 50*5. — 25.
Yahweh's plan is to destroy Assyria, and in order that it may be
clear that He is the author of this destruction, the destruction is
to take place in His own land (cp. Ezk 38i«- 22f. 3921^-), on the
hills of Palestine; cp. lo^^ n. Yahweh is conceived as a warrior
(cp. 63!-^) mangling ("I2B^, cp. Jer 141^ 19", Is 3026, Lev 2ii») and
then trampling (Ps 44* 60^*, Zee 10*) on the prostrate corpse
(cp. 14^^) of Assyria; for similar personifications of nations, see
i3 n. lo^^ n. — Assyria] if the term has its primary sense and .
refers to the Assyrian Empire, this passage was written at all
events before the close of the 7th cent, and anticipates the
elaboration of the idea in Ezk 38 f. If, as in Ezr 6^2, Assyria is
used of one of the empires that succeeded Assyria proper,
the passage may be late and dependent on Ezk 38. 39. — My
mountains] cp. 65^, but probably not Ezk 3821. With Ezek. the
264
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
term " mountains of Israel " is a favourite mode of reference to
Palestine : cp. 6^^- 1 9^, and, in reference to the scene of the
destruction of the world power, 392- *. 17^ — 25c. d. Cp. lo^''.
The lines may be an interpolation ; Judah, to whom the pronouns
in upon them and his shoulder must refer, has not been mentioned.
— 26. Not only Assyria, strictly speaking, is the object of
Yahweh's plan : all the nations of the world also must assemble
on the mountains of Judah to feel there the destructive power
of Yahweh : cp. Jl 4 (3)^2ff.^ Some understand all the earth and
all the nations to be entirely synonymous with Assyria : so Di.,
who appeals to 10^* 8^ ly^^f. 297 30^8, and also 13^ — The hand
that has been stretched out] 528 9". — 27. Cp. Nu 2$^% Is 4^^%
Dn482(36), job9i2.
24. kS-dk . . yajyj] (& om.— Dipn . . . nn'n] for the vbs. and the fem., cp.
7''; for the proph. pf., Dr. § 14. — 25. nne''?] is dependent on 'n'Di, 'nxy, in
V.**; in the parallel clause the inf. passes over into the impf.: Dr. §§ 117, 118.
— yoDv] some would read DDDr : cp. on'Syo. — nio'] overloads the line and
inelegantly repeats the vb. of the parallel line.
•^
28-32. — The Fate of Philistia,
The introductory note, v.^, is prose ; vv.*"'* consist of 6 distichs, "*'• ^
is another distich ; the opening words of v.*^ are not, but look like the
fragment of another distich. The distichs consist of balanced lines mostly
parallel in sense : the length of the line is 3 or 4 accents. On a possible
intrusion of B'nj into ^^c, which at present overbalances ^ see n. below j
TlOnt<¥'' ii^ v.***^ should be read as two accents.
28 In the year that King Ahaz died was this oracle : —
^ Rejoice not, O entire Philistia,
Because the rod that smote thee has been broken;
For from the root of the serpent shall issue an asp,
And its fruit shall be a flying fiery serpent.
^ And the poorest of the poor shall feed,
And the needy will lie down in security ;
And *he' will cause thy root to die of hunger,
And thy remnant will he slay.
'^ Howl, (every) town ! cry out, (every) city !
Faint away, entire Philistia !
For out of the north smoke cometh,
And there is no straggler in his ranks.
XIV. 25-27, 28-32 26s
* And what answer will . . . give
. . . the messengers of the nation (?)?
"That it is Yahweh who hath founded §ion,
And in her the afflicted of his people take refuge.**
Some event, presumably the death, overthrow, or enfeeble-
ment of some victorious adversary, who had inflicted severe
suffering on the entire Philistine country, has led the Philistines
to rejoice (cp. 2 S i^o). The prophet warns them that their
rejoicing will be short-lived, for worse things await them from
the same quarter ; an army descending from the N. will destroy
the Philistines, root and branch.
Appended to (v.^^^^ ^nd at present interwoven with (v.^**'** ^),
this prediction of the destruction of Philistia are promises that
the poor (v.^<^), i.e. the Jewish nation, or the afflicted part of that
nation (v.^^)^ ^^rill find security in §ion.
So much seems clear ; but the identification of the adversary
and the determination of the date of the poem are closely related
problems which cannot be solved with certainty. Some theories
may be ruled out at once as inconsistent with a sound exegesis ;
unless the unity of the poem be abandoned, so that v.^^ is
referred to one and v.^^ to another poem, the " asp " and the
"fiery serpent" and "the smoke from the North" all refer,
directly or indirectly, to the person, or power, that is to destroy
Philistia. But, since the " asp " and " the fiery serpent " are
sprung from the same root as " the rod " that has already inflicted
injury on Philistia, we may infer (i) that the writer has the same
hostile nation in view throughout, and believes that the same
nation that has already smitten Philistia will destroy it ; and (2)
that this nation is not Judah, for Judah would have attacked
Philistia from the East (cp. 9^^ n^^); this power descends from
the North : the writer is doubtless thinking of the great coast
road from the N. by which alike Assyrian, Babylonian, and, later,
Greek invaders came. On the ground, then, of both (i) and (2)
we may rule out the theories that "the rod" was Ahaz (or
Uzziah ; Rashi, Ki.), the " asp " Hezekiah, and the " fiery serpent "
the Messiah (Del.; cp. ST, Jer.); or that "the rod" was the
Jewish, the " asp " the Assyrian, dominion over Philistia (Di.) :
on the ground of (2) we may dismiss the theory that "rod " and
" asp " indicate different periods of Jewish dominion, interrupted
by a period of weakness (Ges.); and on the ground of (i) the
266 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
theory that the " rod " was the Persian dominion, and the
Alexander the Great (Du., Marti).
But various possibilities remain ; though the number is reduced, if we can
prove that the poem dates from the 8th century. According to the introductory
note, it does do so ; but the evidence of this note has been much challenged.
Some hold that it is an editor's inference from the contents of the poem ;
interpreting the rod of Ahaz and the asp of Hezekiah, he inferred, so it is
suggested, that the occasion of the poem must have been the death of Ahaz,
which the poem describes as the breaking of the rod. This is extremely
improbable ; for Ahaz did not smite the Philistines, but was smitten by them
(2 Ch 28^^) ; it is one thing for interpreters with the note before them, and
even then in desperation, to identify the rod with Ahaz ; quite another for an
editor uninfluenced by the note to stumble on an interpretation so improbable
that to avoid it the mediaeval Jewish commentators fell into other improb-
abilities by identifying the rod with Uzziah, who died several years before Ahaz.
The possibility remains that a late editor inferred, on grounds no longer
obvious, the dcUCy not the occasion, of the poem, and gave his chronological
note the same form as that in 6^. Yet this is not very probable, and were it
not for the suspicious KB'Dn at the end of the note, might be dismissed ; but
KB'Dn may be a substitute for nmn, or the whole of the last clause may be a
substitute for a different conclusion more resembling the form of 20^.
There is probability, then, that the chronological note is
genuinely ancient, and not a mere imitation of an old type of
note ; its evidence, therefore, must not be lightly dismissed.
Unfortunately, even if the note be correct, the date remains
uncertain within limits of a dozen years or so. Ahaz was
certainly alive in 728, but some chronological schemes place his
death in 727, i,e. in the 6th year before 722 B.C. (2 K iS^^),
others in 715 or 714, i.e. in the 14th year before 701 (36^),
others at some intermediate date such as 720. If 727 be the
correct date, the " rod " would be Tiglath-pileser, who also died in
that year and had treated Philistia with severity ; the event of the
year 734 singled out for reference in the Eponym canon is Tiglath-
pileser's campaign in Philistia, and we have more particular
evidence of his treatment of Gaza and Ashkelon. It can be no
objection to this theory that Tiglath-pileser's immediate successor,
Shalmaneser, inflicted, so far as is known, no defeat on Philistia ;
for while the "rod" is matter of history to the prophet, the
"asp" is subject of prediction: in 727, Isaiah may have anti-
cipated a renewal of Assyrian hostiHty against Philistia, which as
a matter of fact did not take place till the reign of Sargon, just
XIV. 28-32 26;
as he anticipated the destruction of Samaria a dozen years earlier
than the actual event.
It is possible that the death of Shalmaneser (722) and the
death of Ahaz nearly synchronised ; and some have identified the
" rod " with Shalmaneser. But it does not seem probable that
Shalmaneser ever troubled Philistia, though the lack of inscrip-
tions by him does not admit of a positive statement on this
point.
Rejecting the evidence of the note, many have identified the
"rod" with Sargon, whose death occurred in 705. Sargon's
treatment of Philistia in 720 and again in 71 1 (ch. 20) was severer
even than Tiglath-pileser's.
Accepting the note and placing the death of Ahaz in 720, i.e.
16 years (2 K 16^) after c. 735, when Ahaz was already (ch. 7),
though he had probably only just become, king, but abandoning
the interpretation of the broken rod as a reference to the death
of a king, Wi. attributes the joy of Philistia to the effect of the
news of the battle Dur-ilu in 721 : according to Sargon's own
account, he was successful in this battle against the Elamites, the
allies of Merodach-baladan ; but, according to the Babylonian
Chronicle, Sargon was defeated, and subsequent events show that
it was certainly several years before Sargon made good his
position in Babylon. Che. adopted this theory in Introd. p.
81, but abandoned it later {SBOTy p. 195) in favour of the
theory that 1428-32 jg^ \\\^q 14*'^^ a post-exilic poem referring to
Sennacherib's death in 681.
Du. and Marti have also argued for a non-Isaianic origin, and indeed for a
post-exilic date on these grounds: (i) v.'^ attributes the foundation of §ion
to Yahweh, 29' to David ; (2) the application of the terms D'*?!, D'3V3k, D"jj;
in vv.*'*- **• ^ ; (3) '^^n3 conjecturally substituted for 'ni33 in v.***. (i) and (3)
have no great weight : for if David's battles might be called Yahweh's battles
(i S 25^), surely David's foundation might also be called Yahweh's founda-
tion : Isaiah surely conceived Yahweh as working through David ; "vi in v.*"
is anything but certain (see n.). (2) is not without weight : see notes below.
But *'*• ''• ^, the only parts of the poem affected by the argument, might well
be subsequent additions (see especially n. on ^^ **).
28. Cp. 6^ ; and on the meaning and probable genuineness of
the note, see above. — 29. Philistia] nc^Q occurs in the OT (v.^'.
Ex 15I*, Jl 4^ Ps 6o^<> = 108^0 3^8 8y4|) only as a poetical synonym
for "the land of the Philistines" (D^nK'^3 pN); but Palastu^
268 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Pilistu^ occurs in Assyr., e.g. ana {matu) Pilista in the Eponym
Canon for 734, and Pilesheth in Egyptian Inscription of the 22nd
Dynasty {c. 945-745 b.c.) : see H. Vincent, Canaan^ 454. — The
staff that smote thee\Q.^. lo^jOx the staff of thy smiter{(Bi)\ cp. 1020-2*
14^ (9^) i in the latter case the broken stick corresponds directly
to the death of the king at whose hands Philistia has suffered ;
in the former, to the temporary withdrawal from Philistia of the
hostile army, probably in consequence of the death of the king.
If under the dead king the Philistines were smitten with a stick,
under the new king they will be smitten with serpents (cp. 1 K
1 2^*). For suggested identifications, see above. — For from the
root of the serpeni\ rejoice noX^for worse is to follow than has yet
come and from the same quarter. At present there is an abrupt
change of figure : serpent takes the place of rod in the previous
line. Possibly serpent (K^nj) is a gloss on the rare word VQV, asp^
and the original text ran from its root^ i.e. the root whence the
rod came. In any case the meaning is that the future greater
mischief will issue from the same quarter as the mischief that is
past ; if asp and fiery serpent refer to Assyrian king(s), so too
does rod\ and if r^^ referred to a Jewish king or dominion, so
too would asp and fiery serpent. It is quite unsafe to assume
that V.29C- ^ refer to successive stages in a future increasing peril
(Di.), and asp 2ind fiery serpent to distinct persons, one succeeding
to and proving more dangerous than the other. Certainly, if {5^n:
be original in v.^^^^, it is most natural to explain its fruit as
meaning the fruit of the serpent (t^nj) rather than the fruit of the
asp : the two lines are then parallel and synonymous statements
of the same fact or anticipation — the future issue and offspring
of the root whence the rod was taken will be dangerous serpents.
Again, there is no sound evidence that three terms tJ'n:, ysv, and
5]DiyD 9p;^ refer to reptiles of differing degrees of venomousness.
The first is generic (Gn 3), but is used of dangerous serpents
(Gn 49^^, Am 5^^, Ec lo^, Ps 58^ (4)) ; the second and third refer
to specific types of venomous reptiles, actual or mythical : but
what particular types are intended cannot be determined. The
VBV mentioned here only may be the same as the "•JVS^ of 1 1^
595, Jer 8^7, Pr 23^21; for the tlDiyo cjiK', see 30^; and for the
meaning of PjlC', cp. 62 n., Nu 21^ n. — 30. The hostile power will
destroy Philistia with famine and the sword of war, but will
leave Judah unmolested : the Jews will live in peace and plenty
XIV. 30, 3' 269
(cp. v.^). Such must be the meaning, if v.^^* ^ is original ; yet
the use of the terms />oor and needy for Yahweh's people savours
more of the Psalter than of Isaiah : lo^, of course, being different,
probably also ii*. Possibly these lines at least are later than
the age of Isaiah. In any case they are probably misplaced :
for the peace and plenty of the poor, v.^oa- ^^ is no natural sequence
(iy"i"l) to the succession to the stick of a serpent (v.^^), nor again
is the slaughter of the Philistines (v.^^*'- ^) a natural sequence
(^nom) to the peace and plenty of Judah ; on the other hand,
y 80c. d jg tiie sequence of v.^^ ; while ^^^' ^ could find a more
suitable place after v.^^^ — The poorest of the poor] lit. the firstborn
of the poor: the nearest parallels to the idiom are in Job iS^^
Ps 89^8 (27\ But the text is open to suspicion ; the superlative
seems pointless (see line b), and parallelism suggests that man
conceals a term synonymous with ntSDP in the next line ; ^^3
(Dt 33^^, Jer 49^^ : cp. "y^'i>, Nu 23^, Mic 7^*) would be suitable,
the poor shall feed by themselves^ unmolested by the nations
(cp. Nu 23^). Easier palaeographical emendations (see phil. n.)
give a definition of place ; but this would form a less satisfactory
parallel : the line then reads, And the poor shall feed on my
meadow or on my mountains (v.^^ n.); in this case Yahweh is
the speaker. — And he will cause to die . . . he will slay] the
rendering rests on the reading n^DH^. (ffirST) for Wni, I will slay ;
the subject is the same as in v.^^*'* \ Many prefer to obtain two
vbs. in the first person by following f^ instead of (& in the first
line, and reading airiN for Jin^ in the second : in this case Yahweh
is the subj. — Thy root] in contrast to the root of v.^^, which sends
up stronger growth, the root of Philistia will die. But (i) the
parallel line does not maintain the figure of a tree ; ct. 5^*, Hos
9^^ ; (2) a dead tree is not a good figure of complete destruction
(cp. Job 14^); (3) trees die for lack of water; the famine of
which Philistia is to die is probably the famine of beleaguered
cities (cp. 5^^), and some term more immediately suggestive of
human beings seems wanted ; consequently fflr's thy seedio,-^. e.g.
54^) may represent the original text. — 31. Touni\ lit. gate : cp.
the Deuteronomic phrase " within thy gates," i.e. in all thy
towns. — From the north] cp. Jer i^* 10^2 472^ — Smoke] if this is
correct, the enemy is represented as capturing and burning the
country as it moves southward towards Philistia : the next line,
2fO COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
in spite of the uncertainty of the last word (see phil. n.), suggests
that a more personal term may have been used ; the enemy
moves on compactly and rapidly with no straggler^ lit. one who
is separated^ in his ranks ; cp. ^'^. — 32. In contrast to Philistia
(vv.29-3i)j Sion, the existing city (ct. 28^^ n.), is safe, for none other
than Yahweh has founded it (cp. 54^^ Ps 87^) : in Sion, Yahweh's
people will find a secure retreat (cp. v.^^*- ^ with n.). So much is
clear; but how this idea was introduced and connected with
what proceeds is not clear, for the opening words are a corrupt
fragment of an entire distich (see phil. n.). It is possible that
v. ^2 was not the original continuation of v.^^ j but if it was, then
the odd expression the messengers of {the) nation^ if not itself the
result of corruption, must imply that the Philistines send envoys
to Jerusalem (cp. 18^, Jer 27^) to seek aid, and receive in
response the words of ^'^^' ^ — for them a somewhat irrelevant
answer. The answer would doubtless be more relevant if
addressed to messengers of Assyria demanding the capitulation
of Jerusalem ; but the difficulty is to establish the connection of
an Assyrian embassy to Jerusalem with a threat of the destruction
of Philistia ; the difficulty remains if we read nations {(B). — The
afflicted of his people"] does this mean that another portion of
Yahweh's people will not find refuge there ? If v.^^b jg \^ agree-
ment with v.^^*- ^ and the terms poor and needy here mean Judah
as opposed to Philistia, this is improbable. At the same time it
is rather unsatisfactory to take \0V ^^3y as an appositional gen.
and render the afflicted^ {even) his people. Possibly ''''jy is an
error (cp. lo^) : the term, like those of v. 2^*- ^ is more easily
explicable by post-exilic circumstances than by those of the 8th
cent.
28. Ntron] (K Tbpij/w., as in 15^ 17^ 22^ 23^—30. mD3] ^Tff MT 'i^2^,Jirsi-
bof-no/'f Lowth 'l^s?, {the poor shall feed on) my choice first fruits. Koppe
proposed '1^3, in my meadows \ and many have adopted this or '")33, in my
meadow ; but see 30^^ n. ; Che. , Marti 'TJij?, on my mountains ; but ct. 'I-tVv,
v.^^ For another suggestion, see above, ffi's equivalent for D'*?! msn is
TTTUXol 5t' avTOv. — aiq: . . . 'nom] ffi dveXet . . . dj'eXet ; & . . . A » Vojn
V. ^oA 1 : ^ hv^p* , . . n'D'i ; "B interire fcuiam . . . interficiam. On the
choice of readings, see above. — iK'ne'] (ffi rh airipixa <xov ; ST 133. — 31. "lyjy 'V'^'.n]
lyt:' is here exceptionally fern. ; Kon. iii. 249W. — aiDJ] inf. abs. Niph. : G-K.
727/, ii-^bb. — viyiD] so pointed, here only; and nyio nowhere has quite
the sense required here ; the word lyiD is explained as the place appointed
(^y') for the soldier, i.e. the ranks of an army. Marti proposes imoy ; cp.
XIV. 28-32 AND XV. XVI. 27 1
fry in the previous line. On (HEr's rendering of injnoa Tna pK by koI ovk fartp
Tov elvai, see Ges. p. 102, and Ottley.— 32. 'w 'okSd njy noi] certainly, if v."
is part of the poem in ^"^', these words look like a fragment of a distich.
(Sc reading '^Vd for '3kSd, and (cp. also C) probably uy for njy, and D'u for
'13, renders Kal rl iiroKpi6T^<roi>Tai ^curiXeis idvdv. The best that can be done
with ^ is to treat njy as a vb. with an indefinite subject (G-K. 144^, what
then shall one answer (RV) ; cp. H : this is obviously unsatisfactory. Sb reads
njyj, what answer shall we give — also improbable. Very unconvincing
attempts to complete the distich have been made by Bick., Du., and Che.
XV. X\l.— The overthrow of Moab,
These chapters, containing the oracle (13I n.) of Moah^ in
part describe and lament, in part, as it seems, predict a great
calamity. An appendix, i6i^^-, treats the entire oracle as a
" word of Yahweh," i.e. a prophecy, which was spoken long ago
and has hitherto remained unfulfilled, but is now to be fulfilled
within the term of three years.
The oracle is probably enough not the work of a single
writer. It would be easier to speak with decision on this point
if the text were less corrupt, and the interpretation of many
details less uncertain.
In the first place, it is to be noted that the major part of the
oracle re-appears with many textual variations and much differ-
ence of order in Jer 48.* Thus :
Is 151-2^ absent from Jeremiah; yet cp. 48^^- ^8.
J e2c-7a _ Tgj. ^gSTa. 38. 34a. 31 (cp. 36a. b) 84b. 6. 34d. 860^
i5'''^-i6^ absent from Jeremiah.
1 56-11 _ Jej. A^l^. 30b. 36a. b. 32c. b. a. d. 33. 86a. b
\G^ absent from Jeremiah.
Even in i52c-7a and i6^-ii there are a few lines, or clauses,
not incorporated in Jer. ; the more important are 15^^- ^ i6^- ^- ^^
But it remains remarkable that whereas almost the whole of
15!-'^* i6®-^^ is quoted, or has left its trace, in Jer 48, no trace of
the long intervening section is to be found there. Was then the
compiler of the cento in Jer 48 familiar with Is 15. 16, or did
he and the editor of Is 15. 16 alike make use of an elegy over
Moab of which the whole or much of Is 15^^-1 6^ and 16^2 formed
no part ? The latter alternative seems the more probable ; for
there is a difference of character between A 15^*^* id^'^^ and
* Cp. the translation and notes in Dr. Book offer. 280 fF.
272 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
much of B i5''^-i65 16^2^ A is throughout descriptive, or
expressive, of the emotions which naturally find an outlet
in elegy: the first person, when it is used (Is 15^ i6^-^i: also
Jer 48^6 = Is 16''), refers to the poet. On the other hand, in B
the first person (15^^ ? 16^ (&) refers to Yahweh, and the prophetic
element is conspicuous; note n\"l1, i62-i2^ and the other clearly
prophetic statements in 15^^ 16*. A less significant difference is
the dramatic character, as it appears, of 16^-*. But this differ-
ence of character in the different sections of Is 15. 16 cannot be
the reason why Jer 48 does not quote from B as well as A ; for
Jer 48 has incorporated the passages from A, the elegy, into a
whole which resembles B in being prophetic, and in introducing
Yahweh as the speaker (cp. e.g. Jer 481- ^2. 30. 35. 38^^
If we are right in this conclusion, we have to inquire whether
the extent of the elegy can be more closely determined, (i)
Such parts of i5'^^-i6^ as are not clearly prophetic may belong
to the elegy and have been omitted by Jer., as are a few lines of
the remainder of Is 15. 16. Not improbably, then, j^'^^-^a-
belonged to the elegy ; at all events they scarcely formed part
of the prophecy, though it is possible that they were variants or
parallels not yet incorporated in the elegy when the editor of Jer
48 made use of it. Even 162, if r^^n) be read for n\Ti, might
have formed part of the elegy; but the awkwardness which is
occasioned by the present position of this v. may be due to the
certainly corrupt state of 16^. (2) Possibly enough some of the
original elegy has failed of preservation in either Is. or Jer. We
appear to have in i5^*'* •*• ^ 16'' and 16^^ a thrice-repeated,
though in each case more or less mutilated, refrain. The
number of rhythmically similar lines at present preceding each
occurrence of the refrain is nearly though not quite equal. If,
however, 15^^-16^, entire or in large part, were included in the
elegy, great inequality would result ; and this is some confirma-
tion of the conclusion that most at least of that section is really
foreign to the elegy. (3) 16^ though also found in Jer. is unlike
the rest of the elegy (note the isi plural), and may be a reflection
on it which, at an early period of the text, was incorporated in
the elegy.
To facilitate the study of the section along lines which seem
safest where all is uncertain and many details most uncertain,
a continuous translation — in many respects quite tentative — of
"8£
V
X
!'08
Iti^
rvx.vi.se-TSX.el no
ftc^"^ tu^ tu trtb «»nM\ (VNbW-
•Jl'^
.■,U. ! , H.,,,.
\u 'o*dt i€»i %f>eJ
f
— . , I — Y^ -J
7 >-• •■ '•
Jt.
':^ •'
I.
o«C
35%o
35°4-o'
MOAB
AND
PART OF JUDAH
to illustrate the Commentary
on Is. X 27-32, IV.IVl
Scale of English Miles
Modern names are in thin type
aS'zo'
Lon^ Eagt 354-0' of Greenwich
36'
WfcA.K.Johneton V* Uinburjh (, London
XV. XVI. 273
the elegy is given first. The translation of the prophetic section
15^^-16^ is given below, p. 286, and of 16^2 jn its place.
XV. i-ga + XVI. (6) 7-1 1. — An Elegy on Moab.
The text is so uncertain, or ambiguous, that it is difficult to speak with
certainty of the rhythm. It is often said to be ^irtah rhythm ; but if so,
the variation 2 : 2 for 3 : 2 is so frequent as to give the poem a very different
rhythmical character from 14*"^^ Parallelism occasionally occurs between
periods of 2 accents : see, e.g.y i^^ and the distich IS**** "• ^ ; more often the
periods of parallelism are longer — 4 14; see 16^"^'' with phil. n. The rhythm
of the refrain (see 15*°* **• °* i6''") in its original form perhaps, and of 15**" ••
certainly, was 3 : 3. On the strophic division, see above.
I.
* Because in a (single) night *Ar has been spoiled,
Moab is undone;
Because in a night ^ir has been spoiled, Moab is
undone.
•*The daughter of Dibon hath ascended the high
places to weep;
On Nebo and on Medeba, Moab doth howl.
On every *head' is baldness, every beard is clipped,
Jer 48^^^ [Upon all hands are gashes, and on all loins sack-
cloth.]
* In his streets they have girded on sackcloth.
On * his ' roofs and in * his ' squares (Moab), one
and all, howls,
Running down (?) with weeping.
* Heshbon and Ele'aleh cried out,
As far as Yahas was. their voice heard.
Wherefore the loins of Moab (?) 'quiver'
His (?) soul quivereth for himself:
** My heart crieth out for Moab.
2.
^ ^ *^ For the ascent of Luhith — he goeth up thereon weeping,
For the way to Horonaim — they raise (thereon) the
cry of destruction.
18
274
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
^ For the waters of Nimrim became desolations.
For the grass has dried up,
The young grass is exhausted,
Green things have not grown.
7 Wherefore the abundance he had acquired and their (?) . .
Over the Wady of Willows they carry them away.
^ For the cry hath gone round the border of Moab ;
As far as Eglaim is the howl thereof.
And (as far as) Be'er Elim is the howl thereof.
^* For the waters of Dimon are full of blood,
j516 \Ye have heard of the pride of Moab, very proud.
His haughtiness and pride and overbearing— not right are his
pratings.
7 Therefore *!' howl *for' Moab,
For entire Moab ' I ' cry out.
For the raisin-cakes of Kir-'heres'
I' moan.
** For the tract of Heshbon the vinc of Sibmah hath languished,
^The lords of nations its red clusters smote down:
^ Its tendrils have stretched out, gone over to the sea,
^^ Unto Ya'zer have they reached, strayed into the
wilderness.
9 Wherefore I weep with the weeping of Ya'zer,
O vine of Sibmah I drench thee with my tears,
Heshbon and Elealeh ;
For upon thy grapes and thy (grape-)harvest shouting
(?) hath fallen,
^^ And joy is withdrawn and exultation from ' thy vine-
yards.'
And in the vineyards no ringing cry is given,
The wine 'is not trodden,' in the vats 'none is left';
11 Wherefore my bowels for Moab sound like a harp.
And my inward parts for Kir-^eres [sound like a pipe].
The ^rsf strophe (151'^*) states the disaster, and its effect, —
the destruction of Moab, — and then depicts the lamentation
that spreads with the news through Moab. The disaster ap-
pears to have been an attack from the South ; *Ar and ^ir
(sites to the S. of Arnon), taken unawares, fell before the enemy
XV. XVI. 27S
almost without a blow (v.^). The news spreads northwards
across Arnon to Dibon and to the extreme northern towns of
Moab — Heshbon and Ele'aleh (v.^). The refrain in the present
text records the emotion of both Moab and the poet (vv.^'^- ^- ^).
The second strophe^ i^5b-9a(7) 157. further scenes of lamenta-
tion and desolation ; the sites mentioned are all uncertain ; but
some at least probably lay in Southern Moab, though not
necessarily, with the exception perhaps of So*ar, in the extreme
south, i.e. on the Edomite border. The refrain in the present
text of Is (emended above) records the emotion of Moab; in
Jer the refrain refers mainly to the poet's emotion.
Many writers find in this strophe a description of the flight
of Moabite refugees into Edom ; this view rests partly on
identifying the Wady of Willows with the Edomite border, partly
on emending 15^ so as to introduce the word Edom, and partly
on a particular explanation of a very obscure v., i6\ An allusion
to flight into Edom is anything but certain, even if 15^^-16*
formed an integral part of the poem.
Third strophe^ \(i^'^^\ a special feature in the disaster — the
extensive and famous vineyards of Northern Moab are destroyed ;
the enemy have fallen on the country in the time of vintage,
and there will be no joy of the vintage and no wine for Moab.
The refrain records the poet's emotion.
The age of this elegy is very uncertain. It is earlier than
the Appendix (i6i3^-), and earlier than the composition of Jer 48 ;
but the dates of these are unfortunately also uncertain. It
belongs to an age when the territory of Moab stretched far
north of the Arnon. In the time of Omri, Israel held the
country as far south as Arnon ; Mesha, toward the end of the
9th century B.C., recovered this northern territory, at least as far
north as Nebo. Soon after, if we may press 2 K lo^^f.^ j^
passed back to Israel and then into the hands of the Syrians ;
and then, possibly after another period of Moabite occupation
(cp. 2 K \'^^^'\ if we may rely on Am 6^*, 2 K 142^ with the
more specific implications of i Ch s^-^'^, it was restored to
Israel by Jeroboam 11. in the first half of the 8th century b.c. It
ceased to be Israelite in 722 at latest, and much at least of it
was Moabite at the beginning of the 6th century (Ezk 25^) ;
but there is no definite evidence to show precisely how long
before and how long after the time of Ezekiel the Moabites
276 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
held it. But we may infer with great probability that the dis-
trict both south and north of Arnon was overrun by Arab
nomads, who so completely subjugated the ancient population
that they gave their own name of Nabataeans, or Arabians, to
the population of the country. The chief facts are these : (i)
Ezek. in the early part of the 6th cent, foresees such an invasion ;
(2) Nehemiah (mid. 5th cent, b.c.) couples Arabians and
Ammonites ; and he may well mean by Arabians, inhabitants of
Moab (Neh 4^ W, cp. 2^*) ; (3) in the 2nd cent. B.C. the popula-
tion of ancient Moab is certainly Nabataean, and Medeba in
particular belonged to the tribe of Jambri (an Arab name) —
I Mac 9^^^- ; so, later, Josephus terms the people of this district
Arabians {Ant. xiv. i. 4), and the district formed part of the
Roman Provincia Arabia; (4) Mai i^-^ attests the northern or
western movement of nomads from the Syrian wilderness into
the neighbouring country of Edom. (2) and (4) together
suggest the 5th century as the period of the Nabataean con-
quest of Moab of which we have no direct information, but
which fell between c. 570 and 170 B.C. — (i) and (2).
Not improbably the elegy actually relates this Nabataean
conquest of the 5th cent. ; if so, subsequent events showed
that the poet was not employing any rhetorical exaggeration
when he declares that the fall of *Ar and Kir signified the
extinction of Moab as an independent people. It would accord
with this that the attack described in the poem seems to be
delivered from the south or east; it is possible, too, that the
special emphasis laid on the destruction of the vines reflects
the special animosity displayed by the Nabataeans (Diodorus
19^^) towards vine-culture (so Marti). There is nothing in the
poem, even if it included 15^^-16^, inconsistent with this theory;
and the strong sympathy with Moab displayed by the poet
would find some parallel in the Book of Ruth, if that book is
rightly attributed to the 5 th century.
It is still more difficult to determine, even approximately,
the absolute date of the Appendix or epilogue {i6^^^'\ or of
15^^-16^, if this section is rightly judged to be an interpolation.
But it will be convenient to say what may be said at this point.
(1) We can hardly simplify the problem by attributing the
interpolations in the elegy to the writer of the epilogue ; for the
epilogue certainly purports to be added to a *' word of Yahweh "
XV. XVI. 277
concerning Moab, which 15^-16^2 j^ its present form is (see
15®^), but which the elegy was not.
(2) The style and language of both epilogue and interpola-
tion is indecisive ; due regard being had to the state of the
text, they show little or nothing necessarily late, nor again
anything decisively Isaianic; for the fact that some of the
vocabulary can be paralleled from the prophecies of Isaiah no
more proves the passages to be Isaianic than the fact that in
part it cannot be so paralleled proves by itself that it is non-
Isaianic (cp. Cheyne, Introd. 83-85). With this epilogue, cp.
that in 23^^'-. So long as the Book of Isaiah was regarded as
being primarily a work compiled by Isaiah into which certain
interpolations had crept, it was not unreasonable to argue that
no sufficient case was made out against the Isaianic authorship
of the epilogue; but once it is recognised that the Book of
Isaiah is a prophetic collection of the 3rd century B.C. (Introd.
§ 27), it becomes a bold and unjustifiable assumption that this
epilogue to a prophecy, which is perhaps not much older than
the 3rd century, was itself written by a particular prophet
five centuries before ; more especially is this so in view of the
fact that other "oracles" in chs. 13-23 are clearly later than the
age of Isaiah.
(3) At the same time it is no easier to select a period in the
age subsequent to Isaiah than in the age of Isaiah itself to which
the epilogue can be confidently assigned.
Brief reference may be made to some other theories. Since the time of
Koppe and Eichhorn the Isaianic authorship of the elegy at least has been
increasingly questioned and is now seldom maintained, though it is not
decisively rejected by Driver (LOT^ 213 f.). This is due to the style and
manner of the piece — the unrestrained sympathetic emotion, the absence
of any reference to Yahweh, "the very awkward accumulation of the
particles '3 and p Vy," the excessive use of paronomasia; see more fully
Che. Introd. 85 f., Di. p. 146, where, however, the list of expressions not
found in Isa. includes along with a few which, taken together, have some
weight, some which are textually doubtful. The style, however — though this-
points decisively away from Isaiah — does not point decisively to any par-
ticular age : many, therefore, have attributed the elegy to a writer earlier than
Isaiah, and, in particular, to the period of the (assumed) conquest of Moab by
Jeroboam II. This theory, relying on the supposed reference to a flight
of the Moabites south in 15', assumes, in spite of 15^"°, that the elegy
describes an attack on Moab from the north by Jeroboam 11. of Israel ; then
16^'"*, treated as part of the elegy, is supposed to refer to Jeroboam's con-
278 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
temporary Uzziah (whose friendship was sought by the Ammonites (2 Ch 26®),
and therefore, it is inferred, might have been sought by the Moabites also)
as the king whose protection is sought by the Moabite refugees (6^"^). So sub-
stantially, among others, Hitz., Reuss, Wellh. {EBrit.^ xvi. 535), W. R. Smith,
Di., Skinner, Whitehouse.
Du. ascribes the elegy to a very recent date : the epilogue only fits a
period when the hope was cherished of thoroughly destroying the Moabites
and the Nabataeans ; such a period is that of Alexander Jannaeus (104-78
B.C.). The elegy itself should not be much earlier, and may refer to a
Nabataean incursion in the 2nd cent. B.C., the ruler in Sion (16^) being
John Hyrcanus (135-105 B.C.).
Marti suggests that the elegy written in the 5th cent, (see above) may,
not long after it was written, have been turned into a prophecy by the
addition of i5^*'-i6*.
Ew. {Propketen^f i. 380 f.) already detected the work of three hands in
chs. 15. 16, and assigned (l) 15. 16'"^'^ to a prophet who lived East of the
Jordan between the beginning of the 9th cent, and the time of Amos ; (2)
16^"* to a contemporary of Uzziah, who lived perhaps nearly half a century
before Isaiah's appearance as prophet ; (3) i6^^'* to Isaiah.
For modern attempts to defend the Isaianic authorship of the entire
section — elegy or prophecy, epilogue and all — reference may be made to
Barth, Beitrdge (1885), pp. 20-23, and the commentaries of Del. (Eng. tr.
1890) and Orelli.
XV. i-5a. First Strophe of the Elegy. — i. However
"•D be explained and the lines punctuated (see phil. n.), this v.
gives the cause of the alarm described in the following verses.
*Ar (Moab) and Kir (Moab) have been taken by sudden assault ;
the country was hardly aware of danger till the blow had actually
fallen, and its fall had been sealed. In vv.^'* follow scenes of
the lamentation called forth by the news as it travels northwards
through Dibon, Nebo, and Medeba, to Heshbon and Ele'aleh.
— In a night] The suddenness with which the assault was made
and the rapidity with which all was over seem to be expressed
by this phrase, emphasised as it is by being placed before the vb.
Cp. 17^* "At evening, lo ! terror, before morning it is no more."
— Ar {of Moab)] one of the chief places of Moab ; see Nu 21 28,
where the only (other) occurrence of the name in the form *Ar
of Moab is found. But the same place is intended by the
abbreviated form *Ar, which on one view of the construction is
the form used here, in Nu 21^^, Dt 2*- 1^- 2^, and probably by *Ir
Moab in Nu 22^^*, 'Ir and *Ar being indistinguishable, if the text
be written without the vocalic consonants. *Ar of Moab appears
to have lain on the upper waters of the Arnon {Numbers^ p.
XV. I, 2 279
286), i.e, E. of Dibon and S. of Nebo, Medeba, Heshbon and
Ele'aleh. (& gives for Ar of Moab^ as for Moab throughout the
section, 17 Mwa^Sems : and Buhl (Geog. p. 269) thinks the name
covers a district — the region south of Arnon — rather than a city.
^Kir Moab'\ is commonly identified with I^ir-heres (16''^ n.),
and so with the modern Kerak, which is situated in the
extreme south of Moab on a lofty spur between two ravines
whose bottoms lie about 1000 feet below — a position almost
impregnable in ancient warfare (Hastings, DB). For fuller
description, with illustrations of Kerak, see A. Musil, Arabia
Petraea, \. 45 ff. But, as Buhl {Geog. 270) rightly observes,
there is no convincing reason for the equation. If it is incorrect,
the site of ^ir Moab, which is mentioned here only, is quite
unknown ; from the northward line indicated in vv.^-* we
might infer that it lay somewhere S. of Dibon. — 2. Lamentation
in Dibon, Nebo, and Medeba. On certain views of the wholly
improbable text of J^ (see phil. n.), a fourth place otherwise
unknown, Bayith (EV), is mentioned. — The daughter of Dibon
hath ascended] reading by conjecture \y\ 03 nn^jy (Du.) for rhv
p''^1 n^3n ; the daughter of Dibon is the personified population of
Dibon (1^ n.). Dibon, mod. Dhiban, lay about 4 miles N. of
Arnon and 13 E. of the Dead Sea. "Dhiban is usually de-
scribed as lying on two hills ; but there are really three . . .
Probably . . . the ancient city comprised all three hills along
with the col connecting them ; but . . . also spread eastward
over the road and the shallow wady beside it to the slopes beyond,
on which are many scattered ruins." " At one period or another
the town must have been as large as any in Moab: cp. the
epithet UafifityWr)^ applied by Eusebius " (G. A. Smith, PEjF
Qu St. J 1905, p. 41 f.). — The high places to weep] before their
god(s); cp. 16^2^ — Nebo] the modern Jebel Neba, on or near
which the town of the same name presumably lay, is about 18
miles due north of Dibon and 5 S.W. from IJeshbon. It is
about 4 miles N.W. from Medeba (mod. Madeba), which lies
about 15 miles slightly E. of N. from Dibon. The mountain top,
which is 10 miles back from, and 4000 feet above, the Dead
Sea, commands a very extensive view.* Madeba lies on a slight
elevation rising from the Moabite plateau. Both Nebo
{Nufubers^ 32^^ n.) and Medeba {ib. 21^^ n.) are mentioned in
* Expositor^ Nov. 1904, pp. 322 ff.
280 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Mesha's inscription and several times in tlie OT. The remain
of a stone-circle, as probably its name also, is a token of the
sacred character of Nebo. — 2C, 3. The description of the
mourning continues, with particular reference to the chief rites
of mourners — the tonsure of the head (cp. e.g. Am 8^*^, Jer 16^,
Lev 21^), the shorn beard (cp. Jer 41^), and the girding on of
sackcloth (20^ n.). The greater rhythmical regularity of Jer
^837. 88a jjj^y ijg ^jug ^-q ^jjg |-gxt of thc pocm being better
preserved there : in particular, all his, viz. Moab's, heads is
improbable ; read with €r and Jer on every head : cp. next clause.
See, further, phil. n. — In his streets'] the pronoun (masc.) refers,
rather awkwardly, to Moab (cp. Jer 48^^). — 4a. b. The cry of
distress raised by the news in Heshbon and Ele*aleh, situated
close together in the most northern district of Moab, is heard as
far as Yahas. Heshbon, mod. ^esban, famous as the city of Sihon
(Nu 2i2i-27 nn.), lay 5 miles N.E. of Nebo ; Elealeh (Nu 32^7 n.),
mod. Eral, about ij miles N.E. of Heshbon. The site of
Yahas (Nu 2\^'^ n.) is unfortunately uncertain; if Mesha's
statement (1. 20), that he took Yahas "to add it to Dibon,"
really implies, as it would seem to do, that Yahas lay near Dibon,
the point of vv.^-* is that lamentation follows the news of v.^ as
it travels northward from Arnon to Ele'aleh and echoes back
again through the whole length of this district. — 4c. The loins of
Moab\ so (!K ^ oo-<^v9 ( = '^i'n)» ^i cp- Jer 30^. This gives a
better parallel to his soul than MT ^V^Jn, the armed men ; cp. e.g.
Nu 3227 As against MT it is to be further observed that the
poet deals throughout with the fate, the actions, the emotions
of an entire people, not of particular classes within it. Yet,
possibly, neither fflr nor f^ is quite correct ; for this distich de-
scribing Moab's emotion at its own fate is followed in v.^* by an
isolated monostich expressing the poet's emotion at Moab's fate :
cp. 1 6^1. Not improbably vv.*''- <*• ^ are the expansion, due
mainly to transcriptional accidents, of a distich expressing
throughout the poet's emotion (cp. 16"): it may have run some-
what as follows :
4c. d Wherefore my loins quiver,
5* My heart crieth out for Moab.
1. '3] possibly affirmative (Di.), Surely (7'n.), or interjectional (Marti),
Ah ! that ; more probably causal, the causal sentence being prefixed as in 28''
XV. 1-5 , 28 1
(BDB 473^). The causal sentence may extend over the whole of v.', *3 being
repeated, as is 3 with the infin. rather similarly in Jg 5' ; more probably the
causal sentence ends in each line after ny and I'p respectively ; so Jer. Quia in
node vastata est Ar^ Moab conticuit ; quia in nocte vastatus est Murus^ Moab
conticuit. Editions of "Sy indeed, commonly place the comma after Moab,
but Jer.'s commentary on the v. implies the punctuation given here (see
Migne). Then, nDi3 has a personal subject (cp. 6*), and ' Ar occurs, as most
frequently, in its simple form (not *Ar-Moab); Tp is unique, so also would
3»r«Dn'p be; and if Tp=Bnn Tp below, a simple abbreviation rather than a
different genitival combination is perhaps more likely to occur in the same
poem. Du. makes the main pause after nnr ; in that case the unusual post-
ponement of the subj. to the 2nd sentence would be due to rhythmical
considerations: cp. 4I**''. — ^'!?^i] 21^^ n. Possibly here intended, though
wrongly, to be cstr. (cp. G-K. 130^). — ny ne'] ny is ace. after the pass. ;
G-K. I2ia : or the name of the city is, exceptionally, masc. (Kon. iii. 249a).
— 3K1D Tp] C 3KTD1 H3n3=/^r/r«j of Moob \ probably identified by E with
mod. Kerak, which in Greek writers appears as Xapaxfiufia : q>. Musil,
Arabia Petraeay i. 58.
2. pm vfirx n^y] the least improbable translation of the text, on the
supposition that |^ is correct, is Bayith and Dibon have gone up. Of other
attempts to translate, these examples may suffice : One^ viz. Moab, hath gone
up to the [temple) house and Dibon to the high-places (cp. ^Li.) : the {royal) house
and Dibon have gone up to the high-places (Jer.). Modem interpreters have
been unable to improve on these obviously improbable interpretations. The
text is at fault. (Sr unfortunately is too obscure to be useful ; Sh ]A » <^\
yTs «'>i .^% (cp. O apparently read no ) before \y"\ and no n before nu ; {3n n3
in Jer 48^* may be a reminiscence of the correct text |3n n3 nn^y. — niDsn]
ace. of direction : G-K. ii8/". — ^'^rj for this instead of ^♦^'♦j see G-K. joc. —
vrnS] very precariously explained as a colloquial (Ki.), or dialectic (Di.),
variation of vvtri. Note the sing. |pi in the next clause (cp. Kon. ii. p. 356).
Read rKT with Jer 48'' and (& {ivl vdffijs KetpaXijs). — n^n'O] the sense to shave
(commonly expressed by rhi), found only here and in the parallel passage
Jer 48*^, is common in Aramaic, whence l^tHi* ^ barber ; | ^^ ^\ iij a monk ;
see also Levy, NHW^ s,v, ynj. Many MSS have here nyrv^:, ; but yiJ, used
of hewing off a limb such as an arm (cp. (Sr here), does not occur again in the
present sense. — .Tn3m3 . . . rvmn . . . vn«n3] the change of gender is rather
due to textual corruption than to the fact that the masc. refers to the people,
the fem. to the land, of Moab (Di.). After n'nua, Du., al. add ibdd (cp. Jer
4888 J — precariously, for the original text of w.*°* •, which may have closely
resembled that of Jer, is not to be so lightly restored ; the suggestion is
hardly supported by the fact that ®r reads Kal Kdnreade ^mso before nWiJ Sy ;
ct. K<merbv —"MXXi in Jer 6*. (& may be an addition to the text under the
influence of Jer 4^49'. — '333 it] also doubtful, even if with Che. we substitute
Tpn (22*) for nT. (K has no equivalent for Ti*. For '333 Ti' ^'S" n^3, Jer %
has simply ibod nVa and Jer ®r nothing. The idiom to run down in weeping
does not occur again ; elsewhere the eye runs down tearsy or {streams of)
282 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
•water, Jer 9", Lam i^* 3*^.— 4a. D^^p . . . pyini] here the text of Is is
earlier and better than in Jer 48^ ; cp. also Jer 48* r\p)3\ ly'DBTi. — 3kid ''^r(\
so C 3K1D "niD, U expediti Moab ; but ffi^ nr\ dff^ds rrjs MwajSetriSos, and
similarly SS. Perhaps originally 3K1D was absent and 's^q was intended (see
above).— 4, 5. pv^ . . . nyT . . . lyn'] (!K /3o^ . . . yvtaffercu . . . /3o^ ; F
ululabunt . . . ululabit . . , clamabit\ ^ . . . | Vo/ . . , .n vnt 1
V^\ I 1 ; E pno' . . . rmsfO . . . p^S'o. If irr was originally written
defectively, both lyT and nyn' would be most obviously derived from jn\ The
meaning is in any case uncertain. There is no evidence (for Mic 4^ is corrupt)
that ynn, regularly used of the shout of triumph, was also used of the shout of
distress, which would alone be in place here (U). Nor is there any other
occurrence of yr, to quiver, though this meaning may be inferred as the starting-
point of the meanings timidity in certain Arabic derivatives, and curtain in
nyn' (an object that easily shakes). — "i^] dat. of reference; cp., particularly
with 1^, 2 K 427, Jer 4".— 5- 3K1D^ 'a^] ffi i> KapUa. rijs M. It would not
be wise to change 'aS (|^5) into uS to agree with w«a in v.*** ; for probably
the text of v.**'* * has suffered : see above.
Sb-pa. Second Strophe of the Elegy. — ^V.^^ is preceded
in J^ by five words which do not constitute a sentence, appear
to have no relation either to what precedes or to what follows
them, are scarcely intelligible, and are probably corrupt. The
first word nnna, absent from Jer 48^* and rendered tn her by (Sr,
has been variously rendered and interpreted : (i) U vedes eius,
her {i.e. Moab's) bars^ which is supposed to be a metaphor for
either the defences or the nobles of Moab ; (2) her fleeing
(pnes\ fugitives (MT, RVmarg.). Together with the next two
words, this is supposed to mean her defences (extend), or her
nobles ^ or fugitives (flee), as far as ^o^ar. — So^ar^ (& ^rpftap^ and
in Jer 48^^ Soyop. So*ar is generally supposed to have lain at
the South end of the Dead Sea, and, in particular, in the verdant
Ghor es-Safiye ; a place called by Eusebius Zoopa and Stywp, by
Jer. Zoara or Segor {Onom. 258*^ 159^*), and by mediaeval Arabs
Zughar, ^ughar, Sukar. Some have sought for §o*ar to the N.
of the Dead Sea, and identified it with Tell Shaghfir; but
ShaghOr and So'ar are not philological equivalents. See, further.
Dr. in Z>^, art. Zoar-, and also Musil, Ar. Fetraea/i, 74. — Unto
Soar ^Eglath ShelishiyyaK\ ct. from Soar unto Horonaim *Eglath
Shelishiyyah, Jer 48^4. That *Eglath Shelishiyyah really defined
both So'ar and the apparently distant Horonaim is very improb-
able ; but whether Is or Jer is here nearer to the original is
uncertain. See, further, phil. n. 'Eglath Shelishiyyah appears to
mean the third *Eglath and to be the name of a place, which
XV. 4, 5 283
was perhaps * identical with T€XiOiov mentioned by Josephus
{Anf. XIII. XV. 4) immediately after 'OpCjvw: = J^oro/iaimf in a list
of Alexander Jannaeus' conquests in Moab. On the very
questionable supposition that these words can mean a heifer
of three years old^\ *Eglath Shelishiyyah has been taken as an
epithet expressing either the beauty and strength of hitherto
unsubdued cities, or as comparing the cry of Moab (ffi) to that
of a heifer on the point of being broken in, or as alluding to the
celebrated cattle-rearing in the Ghor es-§ifiye (Musil, Ar.
Petraea^ i. 74). — 5b. C. He goeth up . . . they raise\ the subject
is Moab; the change from the sing. (cp. vv.^^- * 16^) to the pi. is
suspicious. — Lu1pitH\ Onom. (276^2^-) states that there is between
Areopolis and So*ar a village now called Aov«^a. If this
identification be accepted, Luhith lay in Southern Moab.| — The
way to fforonaim\ Jer 48^ the descent to Iforonaim : cp. go down
to ^oronaim (Mesha's Inscrip. 1. 32). ^Joronaim (Jer 483* *• w j j
clearly lay on, or at the bottom of, some descent from the
Moabite plateau ; the phrase " from $o*ar as far as Horonaim "
(Jer 48^) implies that it was remote from §oar. It is not
mentioned in lists of Israelite towns, whence it is commonly
inferred,§ by a precarious argument from silence, that it lay
south of Arnon, south even of the Wady Kerak.|| All the other
conquests of Mesha lay north of Arnon; but he mentions
Horonaim by itself at the end of the inscription : it may
therefore have lain further south than the rest. From the order
in which Josephus {Ant. xiii. xv. 4) mentions the Moabite towns
— ^eshbon, Medeba, Lemba, Oronas, Gelithon, Zara, the valley
of the Cilices — it would appear that IJoronaim lay south of
Medeba and Lemba (? = Libb, 3 hours S. of Medeba); not
necessarily as far south as Arnon, but possibly somewhere on
the descent from Libb to ez-Zara, which is on a "once much
frequented natural road " running along the E. of the Dead Sea,
and also on an important way striking eastwards up to the
plateau: Musil, Arabia Petraea, i. pp. 20 f.; cp. pp. 234 ff. — The
waters of Nimrini] the name Nimrim may be traced to-day both
* We., Deutsche Lit. ZeiL, 1890, 31.
t ffiS^T (F) Ki., EVmarg., Del. ; but see phil. n.
X See S. R. Driver, Exp. Times, xxi. 495-497 (in a paper on the untrust-
worthiness of current maps of Palestine with regard to many ancient sites).
§ See, e.g.y Buhl, Geog. 273. || Sec, e.g., Musil {Ar. Peiraea, i. 75).
284 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
at the S. end of the Dead Sea and to the north of it, to the S
in Moyet Numere, and the Wady en-Numere,* and to the N. in
Tell-Nimrin, some 8 or 10 miles N. of the Dead Sea and 13 E.
of Jordan, and in the WMy Nimrin.f Beth-Nimrah (Nu $2^^ n.)
is identical with Tell-Nimrin ; but Eus. and Jer. {Onom. 143^^
284^3) connect the waters of Nimrim with Bennamerium, " North
of Zoar." The question must remain open unless on other
grounds it can be shown whether the writer is here referring
to North or South Moab. — Desolations] the vb. DDK^ and its
derivatives are commonly used of the devastation and desolation
of countries, cities, etc. ; its application to water is unusual.
" The waters of Nimrim " may have given their name to a city
situated upon them, though Me-jarkon in Jos 19*^, on account
of the state of the text, is a precarious parallel. If the water is
only, or primarily, thought of here, cp. 2 K 3^5, which speaks of
the stopping up of the springs of the Moabites by their Israelite
adversaries. — 6b-d. Absent from Jer. — For the grass has dried
up] this cannot, of course, give the reason for the stopping up of
the waters of Nimrim. The lines are rather, if original, further
parallels to the preceding three lines. — *JB. = ]Qr 48^^; 75-16*^ is
absent from Jer. The text of the v. is very uncertain (see phil.
n.), and consequently the interpretation. Whether the v. really
related the flight of the Moabites with all their substance across
their southern border (Di.) into Edom (Du.), must remain
altogether doubtful. On this assumption, the Wady of the Arabsy
or of the poplars % — either translation is possible — may reasonably
be identified with the Widy el-Ahsa which flows into the Southern
end of the Dead Sea from the S.E., forming the boundary
between Edom and Moab, as it still forms that between the
districts of el-Kerak and Petra (Numbers^ p. 283). Apart from
the assumption, the Wady cannot be identified; for on this
assumption also rests the much favoured, but questionable,
identification of the Wady here mentioned and the Wady of the
Arabah (Am 6^*). — He had acquired . . . their . . . they carry]
all the pronouns refer to Moab ; if the text is sound, which is
very doubtful, cp. for the transition from sing, to pi. v.^. — 8a.
* Seetzen, Reise^ ii. 354 ; Tristram, Moahy 56 f. ; Buhl, Geog. 272.
t Buhl, Geog. 264; Abel in RB^ 1910, pp. 341 f.
X Cp. for the latter meaning the mod. W^dy §af§^f (Tristram, Moaby 35,
58).
XV. 6-9 285
The cry of distress (cp. v.*) has passed through the length and
breadth of Moab, and has reached, in particular, 'Eglaim and
Be'er-Elim. Neither place has yet been identified ; the parallel
line and the context suggest that they lay at opposite extreme
points of Moab : if so, Be'er-Elim is scarcely identical with Be'er
in Nu 21^^, nor *Eglaim with AiyoAXci^ 8 R. miles S. of
Areopolis (Onom. 228^1*^). — pa. The waters of Dimori] also not
identified. Dimon may be an error for Dibon, or possibly a
dialectic variation, like Mecca and Becca, adopted to gain an
assonance with dam^ blood; Jerome, indeed, asserts that both
names Dimon and Dibon were in use in his day.
5. ^nn?] MT intends this to be plural ; cp. G-K. <)ik. Du. punctuates
nhnjzr'innn (cp. G-K. 91(f), assuming that the form is sing, with collective
force. Certainly a fern, suffix between the masculines of vv.**^ <* and ^ is
strange, nnn, fleeing, occurs in 27^ Job 26^' ; proof of the substantival use
( ^.fugitive) rests on this and one other doubtful instance — 43^*. ^ renders
OT-kjOj.^, C pni'D^. There is probably some serious corruption. Was
nn(')na a corruption of Danno, and nyjf y) D'jnno a variant of D'jnn ly nyxo, Jer
48S4p — Thvi\ rhvi ">D3, l^i. : see G-K. So/". Forms with the old fem. ending
n occur in Mesha's Inscr., e.g. 1. 3, nni noan. — r\''vSv\ third, not three years old
(Versions), which would be vxhtra (cp. Gn 15*). — \yST'\ possibly an error for,
or modification (G-K. I^cc) of, njny, Pilpel of niy. But the text is uncertain ;
(K = »i;m, 5 =1(5^3;', and Jer 48* has ijror. — 6. 'D 'o] Jer 48" »D dj '3.— r3' 'a]
\iz& perhaps not read by (55. — 7* DO'ipS^ '"'''y nnn' p S\i\ again very doubtful,
especially the last word. Jer 48'* reads nnn rvo^ irw p hv (in another con-
nection). (&. renders here /a^ koX oCtws /tAXei ataQrflKU. mn', a Bar. XC7., is
commonly supposed to have the same meaning as "in% abundance', nry, to
acquire, cp. Gn 12*: for the cstr. of the sentence, see G-K. 155-*. — ompai]
(fEr eird^u ydp, which in v.* renders nTK 0, here perhaps implies a reading
'mpsi. Jer 48^ reads n3K (see last n.). It is precarious to invent the
meaning store for mpB out of regard to this most questionable passage and
Ps 109® (ambiguous). ^ renders pnoinn, their boundary, "B visitatio — a
common meaning of mps, but unsuitable here. — D^Htr] subj. the Moabites ;
D- {(& ain-fiv) refers to DmpiJi mn' (cp. Dr. 197 (i)).— 8. n»«3i nT\Vy> D'Vjinj;
nnV^* D'^pk] awkward : the fem. suffixes must refer to 3K1d, but ct. the masc.
suffixes in v.=» i6«. With MT D!^3^, ct. ffi 'AyaXKel/i, F ad Gallim. Before
D''?K nK3, sc. ny (G-K. 119^^4); Perles, Marti suggest that D'^k •u<3 is really
one word, In Arielaim (cp. 29* n.).
pb-XVI. 5. Further distress is to befall Moab.— This
exceedingly difficult and obscure section seems to be mainly, or
entirely, a prophetic interpolation in the elegy on Moab : see
above, pp. 276 ff. — The rhythm is, perhaps, predominantly, like
the elegy, 4:4; but the text is too corrupt, or at least too
286 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
questionable, to make it worth while to discuss the rhythm in
detail.
»^ For I will set . . .
For the escaped of Moab a lion,
And for the remnant of . . .
16^. , . the ruler (?) of the land,
... to the mountain of the daughter of Sion.
2 And like birds in flight, like nestlings sent forth,
Shall the daughters of Moab be at the fords of
Arnon.
' " Bring counsel, make decision ;
Spread thy shade like the night at very noon.
Conceal the outcasts, disclose not the fugitives.
* Let the outcasts of Moab find guest-right in thy
midst,
Be to them a concealment from the spoiler."
For the extortioner has come to an end, the
'spoiler' has ceased.
The treader down *has been* consumed out of
the land ;
* And a throne shall be established through loving-
kindness,
And one shall sit thereon through fidelity —
In the tent of David one who judges.
And both seeks out what is right, and is swift
in justice.
9b. C. The distress described in vv.'-** ("the elegy"), which
has already befallen Moab, does not exhaust Yahweh's judg-
ment: further distress is in store: cp. 16^^'^. Such appears to
be the meaning of these lines and the general purport of what
follows down to 16^; but the details are most uncertain. — I will
sei\ or put^ or lay (cp. e.g. Ex 21^2, Nu 12^^). This is followed
in 5^ by upon Dimon (v.^* n.), and then by a word niSDIi which
should mean things addedy additions : the whole is supposed to
mean, I will place fresh calamities on Moab ; but neither the vb.
nor the object really suggests calamity. Marti has suggested
that the clause is a misplaced rubric directing that 15^^-16^
is to be added to Dimon^ i.e. that the passage was to follow
XV. 9-xvi. 5 287
"Dimon" in 15**. (& is intelligible, For I will bring upon
Dimon Arabs ; but it may be merely a guess : it would be diffi-
cult to derive Jl^ from (&. — J*br the escaped] 4* n. Moab has
already suffered severely ; vv.^'®*. — A lion] has been understood
to refer to some pre-exilic king of Judah, or the regent of
Jeroboam 11. (Di,), or Alexander Jannaeus (Du.), or the Assyrian
invader (Che.), or lions (cp. 2 K ly^^, Jer.). In so corrupt and
obscure a passage it would be easier to multiply guesses than to
justify them. — The remnant of] the soil (MT) : J^ might also
mean Admah {/&. *A8a/xiJ), one of the fellow cities to Sodom
and Gomorrah. It would be easy to read Edom^ if the prophecy
really treats of Edom as well as Moab (16^ n.).
XVI. I. Text and interpretation continue most uncertain.
In ffi this V. continues the threatening words of Yahweh in
j^9b. c — I will send the likeness of creeping things upon the land,
jj^ might be a continuation of the description of Moab in 15^'®* —
they have sent^ etc., or an address to some people, presumably
Moabites, send ye (so MT). — The obj. of the vb. in J^ is the lamb
of the ruler of the land^ which is commonly supposed to refer to
the tribute paid in kind by Moab to the king of Israel (cp, 2 K
3*)> or Judah, as overlord of Moab. The words that follow in
^ might mean {i)from Sela* to Midbar: Sela* is then identified
by many with the great Edomite, or Nabataean, emporium,
Petra, which was famous from the 4th cent. b.c., or with some
place in Edom (? cp. Jg i^) less remote from Moab ; Midbar
m2Ly possibly be the proper name of a place in Moab (Nu 21^^)1
or {7) from the rocks of the Arnon valley (Wetzstein), or of Moab
generally (Baud, cited by Di.), or of Edom (Di.), to the wilderness^
which is supposed to mean in the direction of Judah, because
Moab and Judah were separated (if an indirect way was taken)
by wilderness : this would be much as though we were to speak
in England of " sending seawards to Italy." It must suffice to
refer to one or two of the interpretations of the whole v. built
up on these uncertain details, on which see, further, phil. notes.
Di. sees in the v. advice tendered by the Edomites, or by leading
Moabites, to the Moabite refugees in Edom ; the refugees are
advised to seek the protection of the king of Sion, backing up
their request by a present of lambs which they are to send, not
by the nearer route north of the Dead Sea and across Jordan,
which must be supposed closed to them, but first south over the
288 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
rocky land of Edom and then N. through the wilderness. Da
explains similarly, except that he treats )nb^ as pf. and descriptive
rather than imperative and hortatory. Marti, in part following
(&J renders ^ke Edomites will send (the refugees) like a swarm
of insects on the land to Sion. The assumption that Moabite
refugees have fled to Edom is not supported by any clear
indication of such a flight in ch. 15 ; and the following v., if
in its right position, is distinctly unfavourable to it: for there
the Moabites appear at the Arnon, far away from Edom. —
2. The V. introduced by nTil is predictive like 15^^* ", like 16^
also, if ffi's text for the first word (see above) is correct. But
if J^ in v.^ is correct, the predictive clauses 159^.0 552 ^jg
awkwardly separated: Du. therefore places 162 immediately
after 15^. — In flight'] from the nest: cp. Pr 27^. — Nestlings'] p,
a nest, has here the transferred meaning brood that inhabited
the nest. — Daughters of Moab] in Nu 25I means the women of
Moab ; but a limited reference to women seems out of place
here. (& reads daughter, i.e. population (lo^^, cp. e.g. La i^^),
of Moab. Possibly daughters was a rare variant of daughter in
such phrases (cp. ? Ezk i627): or perhaps daughters of Moab
means the inhabitants of the several towns of Moab : cp. ? Ps
^812(11). — The fords] ox passages, cp. lo^^ n. Du. gives mnyo
here the unproven meaning of banks, and treats the whole
phrase, the banks of Arnon, as in apposition to daughters of
Moab. Arnon cutting through its lofty canon formed at times
the northern boundary of Moab, but at others, as here (15^* * n.),
it roughly bisected the territory occupied and governed by
Moab; cp. Numbers, p. 284. — ^3f. The fugitive Moabites, thrust
forth from their country like birds from their nest (v.^), now
arrived in Jerusalem (v.^), supplicate for shelter and protection
against the devastator of their land. — Bring counsel, make
decision] these peculiar phrases may be due to corruption of
the text, see phil. n. A request for counsel is a curious open-
ing for refugees, who want rather what they go on to ask for,
protection. It is disputed whether the second clause means
(i) settle (quickly) whether we may remain in your country, or
(2) decide the rights and the wrongs of the case between us
and our enemies ; perhaps the original text expressed something
entirely different and more appropriate. — 3b. Be to us a protection
against the hot anger of our foes, like deep shade at high noon-
XVI. 2-5 289
day. — 3C. Hide us also from them, do not discover us to them.
— 4. Let us, driven out from Moab, enjoy guest-rights in thy land,
and, among them, the right not to be discovered (cp. Jg 4**^) to
those who have already devastated our country and would destroy
us. — The outcasts of Moab\ so (5S. MT, U (by an obviously
wrong punctuation) distort the sense of J^; hence RV my
outcasts: as for Moab^ etc. : possible also, but improbable, would
be the rendering my outcasts^ O Moab ; see phil. n. — Find guest-
right amongst thee\ be girim (i i^ n.) in thy midst ; the prep, is 3,
/«, not DV, with^ as in 11^. — For the personifying sing. obj. thee^
cp. Jos 9^, a similar sentence. — 4c. d, 5. The various attempts,
some of which are mentioned below, to explain this passage, as
it stands or is arbitrarily emended, in its present connection
have been so unsatisfactory as to lend considerable probability
to the suggestion that it is an interpolated Messianic passage
which has re-acted on the interpretation of v.*** ^ turning what
was an address to §ion (v.^) into an address to Moab. Stand-
ing by itself, the passage would suggest familiar features of the
Messianic age : the land of Israel no more troubled by enemies
and war, 2920, ch. 33, Ps 8920-24 (i»-23)^ the throne of David re-
established through Yahweh's loving-kindness and fidelity (cp.
Ps 8925- 29f. 37f.j^ and occupied by a just and righteous ruler (9^' ^
1 1*^ etc.). The term ^i>D, king^ is not actually applied to this
ruler, but the reference to the throne and the tent of David point
as unmistakably to a king as does the description in 9^**, from
which the term ^pD is also absent. It is quite unnecessary, and
indeed incorrect, to see here the description of some vassal or
viceroy of the king of Israel stationed in Edom (Kn.) or Moab
(Di.). — Through loving-kindness . . . through fidelity^ this trans-
lation, which refers the qualities named to God, is favoured by
the analogy of Ps 89 cited above: cp. also Is 55*. Others refer
the loving-kindness to the king (Ges., Di.) who secures his throne
by his humanity (cp. ii***, Pr 16^* 20*^ 29"), or to his subjects
(Kn.). The fidelity is also referred to the king by some (Gesr),
while others again render differently in security (cp. 39®, Jer 14^^),
i.e, uninterruptedly (Di., Marti). Of attempts to interpret the
passage as an integral and original part of the prophecy, two may
be mentioned : (i) Ges. renders the pff. as prophetic pff., For the
oppression will cease^ etc., and comments, " so that we (Moabites)
shall be able to return again to our country, and no longer need
VOL. I. — 19
290 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
to be a burden to you (Jews)," when the country of Moab is
free from the foe : in v.^ the suppHants urge as a motive for
favour the blessing which such humanity would bring on the
House of David ; (2) Di., adopting Lagarde's conjecture and
reading ^3 IV instead of ^3, translates and interprets ?/nU7 the
extortioner shall have ceased . . . out of the land of Moab, and a
throne shall be set up for a vassal or viceroy ruling in Moab
under the protecting shelter of his over-lord in Sion ; i.e. the
passage, together with v.**- ^, is an insincere promise of the
Moabites, in return for shelter in their hour of need, to be humble
subjects of the Jews hereafter ; the Jews, detecting this insincerity,
refuse the request of the Moabites (v.^).
9b. C. nO'Sfl^ ni«3Di3] <& "A/sajSas koX d/)w rh criripfia : Kal d/)w=*nBONi. —
XVI. 1. p« ^riD nD] aSc (hs ipverd, iirl tt}v 7^1/ = pH'? conD. The sing, of 13,
lamb, occurs nowhere else ; it is improbable that it is a collective. Gratz
proposed nDtfK. — mmo yVoD] IB petra deserii'. this is improbable, for note the
n locale ; but |^ may well be a corruption of some single phrase of place, D
denoting the starting-point and ^k in p's nn ^k the goal. — 2. With the certainly
more or less corrupt text of w.^**, cp. the more or less corrupt text of Jer 48^.
— \y\vh nnayo] (& eVl rASCi 'Apvdv, which points to nothing satisfactory. ^ is
a little suspicious, for (l) there is no obvious reason for the periphrasis of the
gen. (G-K. 129^) here i&'B, Rashi), and, indeed, tS) (cp. Ki.) does not treat
the S as such, but takes mayo as Hoph. part, and renders brought across to
Arnon ; (2) ace. of place, at the fords (G-K. 1 18^), is, as Dr. has pointed out
(on I S 2^), all but confined to cases in which the ace. is followed by a
noun in the genitive ; the only case, except the present, cited by Dr. is 2 Ch
33^", but ct. ffir there. The S would be best accounted for (cp. i8\ Dt 30^*)
if we read S ^?^!0, or, assuming that ttq.'^ was a synonym of nay, \ fil?];^'?,
beyond Arnon. — 3. Tvi^ iN'an] apparently a synonym for nxy lan (Jg 20',
2 S 16^*'), give counsel (to others) ; but the analogy of the use of K'an in Ps
90^^ would rather suggest the meaning, unsuitable here, take counsel. — n^'Sfi]
(Stt. Xe7., apparently meaning the office or duty of a V'^£3, judge or umpire. It
is not clear that ®r had the same text ; the words which seem to correspond
to rh'hti icy n)i\j iN'an are vKdova. (in v.') ^ovXevov Troieire {(rK^irrjp). For
ityy . . . win, K^tib (ST), the K^re i&'B) has 'cy . . . 'K'sn— 2nd fem. sing.
as in the following clauses. ®r does not support the reading iK'an. — h'ho]
could be punctuated '?'^|, entire, complete : cp. ffi 5i4 "navrb^. But the anti-
thesis onnjf gives probability to MT V:^3 ; on h^h. instead of n'?''?, cp. 21" n. —
4. axiD 'ma] rhythmically both words go with 13 r\\i\ constituting together
the first line of a 4:4 ( = 2|2:2|2) parallel distich ; the balance is
entirely destroyed, if 3nid be taken with 'ui 'in (MT, RV).— 'in] in OT
nin = n'n is mostly late: see Gn 272*, Neh 6', Ec 2^ ii3(?)t, and cp. Kin,
Job 37'. But dR read I'n', and 03^ below instead of id"?.— fon] the following
nouns being anarthrous, this was probably so too ; consequently it is little worth
while to labour the point that J'D, a squeezer (cp. f'D, squeezing or wringing^
XVI. I-I2 291
Pr so"), might mean an extortioner. Du. suggests j'fcij (i" n.). An easy
emendation, if psn really possessed the nuance suitable here, ffi ^ avfifiaxio. ;
SS |>NK.i_»a) ; 3J pulvis ; JZT Kp'yD. — nr] probably an error, through haplo-
graphy, for me' : Lowth, al. ; cp. C5. — ddt ion] pi. before a sing. part, used
collectively : G-K. 1450^. But in view of the singulars nSa, oek, the pi. iDn
is suspicious ; for the same reason to read Dpijh for con is unwise ; the change
in the similar sentence 29™ is not parallel, for it is occasioned by the
introduction of So. — 5. thdi . . . rnn] fori . . . \ = both . . . and^ BDB
253a. For BcrD m, cp. i^^
6-iz Conclusion of the second strophe of the
elegy, and the third and concluding strophe. — V.« ( = Jer
48^*) probably formed no part of the elegy; note the ist pi. and
ct. the first sing, used throughout the elegy. It is very question-
able, too, whether v.^ formed an original part of the interpolated
prediction (9^^^-i6^): unlike the interpolation, it re-appears in
Jer. It is customary, indeed, to see in v.^ §ion's reply to the
Moabite suppliants (see on v.^), and refusal to grant them
protection. This is very doubtful : (i) the words contain no
actual refusal ; (2) the reply is given in the ist pi., whereas
the community is addressed in the 2nd sing, in vv.^^* *. The v.
is best regarded as an isolated reflection on the pride of Moab.
7. Moab's emotion at her fate; but the original text, like
Jer 48^^, perhaps expressed the poet's emotion at Moab's fate ;
see phil. n., and cp. v.^^ below, also v.® and 15*^'* n. — The
raisin-cakes of Kir-haresetK\ Jer. the men of ^ir-heres ; cp. Cr rot?
Ka.roiKov(Tw tiered. Raisin-cakes^ i.e. cakes of dried grapes, were
an article of food ; see Hos 3^, 2 S 6^*, Cant 2*. Foundations
(,S, Ki., Ges., AV) is an improbable alternative translation of
''K^''K'N. If Kir-heres is Kerak (15^ n.), and its raisin-cakes rather
than its inhabitants were here mentioned, it is to the point to
observe that there is much vine culture, " for eating only," round
Kerak in modern times (Seetzen, Reisen^ i. 415), and interesting
to recall that, as Marti points out, cakes of pressed grapes and
fine meal are still prepared in Cyprus for festivals — an inheritance
of the Christian Church from old Phoenician custom. The
allusion, like that in v.*, points to autumn as the season when
disaster fell on Moab. — / moan\ J^ ye moan ; Jer 48^1 he moans ;
by some emended to they moan. J^ adds utterly stricken^ which
being pi. implies, if correct, a plural subject to the vb. ; for it
more naturally forms an attribute to the subj. of the sentence
292 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
than to raisin-cakes. — 8-10. For the famous vines of Northern
Moab the poet now weeps, v.^. They have ripened not for
the Moabites to gather with the customary joy of the vintage,
but for the enemy to destroy. Of these verses ^- ^ and *^ are
absent from Jer 48 ; while ^°' ^ is found there (v.^^) ^jt^ consider-
able variations. — Tracts'] cp. Dt 32^3 : other occurrences of niDlK^,
the etymology and exact meaning of which are unknown, are in
Hab 3^^^, Jer 31^*^ (K®re), and in two passages where the text is
doubtful, 37^7, 2 K 23*!. — SibmaK\ "between ^eshbon and
Sibmah there are scarce five hundred paces " (Jer.). A site 2 J
miles W.N.W. of Hesban bearing the name Sumia may give an
echo of the ancient Sibmah. From Nu 2^2^- 3^, Jos i3^^t we
should infer that the place lay in Northern Moab though not
necessarily so close to Heshbon as Jerome's Subama, or the
modern S^mia. — 8b. So famous was this vine that kings — lords
of the nations — drank and became smitten down (28^), i.e. drunk,
with the wine of it. Less probable is the view that the line gives
the cause of the destruction of the vine; for it is doubtful
whether the vb. would be suitable, the reason for specifying the
lords is not obvious, and the cause of destruction would scarcely
correspond to the suggestion of line a. that the vine dies for lack
of water. — Red-clusters\ n^pliK^ : cp. pnK', 5^ n. Other suggested
readings here are vine-tendrils^ or choice plants. — 8c. d. These
lines, translated above in the better order d. C (cp. Jer 48^), give
a hyperbolical description of the size and ramifications of the
celebrated vine ; the site of Ya'zer (Nu 21^* n.) is uncertain,*
but according to Eus. it lay 15 (Roman) miles N. of IJeshbon
(jOnom. 264^^^*). Westwards the vine stretched out^ i.e. extended
tOy or perhaps rather across, the Dead Sea, the N.E. comer of
which lies about 16 miles in a straight line from yeshbon and
some 4000 feet below it. Eastwards the vine extends till the
cultivated land passes into the vast Syrian desert — 9. / weep
with the weeping of Ya*zer'\ the poet joins his tears (cp. 22* n.,
La i^®) to those of Ya'zer ; but why he singles out Ya'zer is not
clear, unless, indeed, we could believe that he was himself a man
of Ya'zer (cp. Du.), and therefore a Moabite. — Heshbon and
[Ele'alek] i5*n. — Thy grapes . . . thy grape-gathering\Khek . . .
^e^trek ; for the sake of the alliteration the writer appears to use
the wide term j^is, summer fruits (28*), instead of 'andbim^ grapes^
* See S. R. Driver, Exp. Ti?nes, xxi. 562 f.
XVI. 8-12 293
and l^^irek^ cuttings harvest^ instead of Ifftrek^ vintage : Jer 48^^
preserves, or substitutes, If^trek, — Shouting hath fallen] 'W7\ is
the joyous shouting of the grape treaders, Jer 25^. Not you,
but the enemy will shout with joy over your grapes, and over
yourselves who will become their vintage; all this may be
suggested by the context and the predicate. But the reading of
Jer, the spoiler (^*^l^'), may be correct, ffi differs from both, but
is wrong. — 10. No joy of the vintage, no wine for use: the
general sense is clear : the text is in considerable disorder, see
phil. n. — None is left] lit. // has been caused to cease (cp. ffir) ; J^,
I have caused {ii) to cease, the subj. being Yahweh; cp. 15®, but
between vv.® and ^^, where the first persons cannot refer to
Yahweh, the reading of J^ is most improbable. Even the passive
is doubtful ; n3B', it has ceased, may be the true text. — II. = Jer
48^^ the poet's emotion ; here as in v.® the first person is certain ;
ct. 1 5*^' 6 16^. The second line has perhaps lost a clause of two
words, supplied in the translation, comparing the inward emotion
to the resounding of flutes ; cp. Jer. — My bowels are sounding]
i.e. my compassion is stirred: cp. 63^*, Jer 31^; for other
instances of bowels as a term for the seat of deep emotions, see
Jer 4^*, Ca 5*; and of the vb. HDH, to sound, murmur, of the
organs of emotion, intelligence, and the like, see Jer 4^® (ni)), Ps
42* (B'S^). — 12. No attendance in the sanctuary, no prayer will
avail Moab. The v. is absent from Jer, and introduces a
religious turn not found in the verses common to Is and Jer ;
not improbably it was added to the elegy over Moab by the
same hand that added 15^^-16'; note the common use of n^ni
here and in 16^. In its present form the v. is unrhythmical. It
may be rendered. And it shall come to pass, when Moab shall have
appeared, when he shall have wearied himself on the high place and
shall (or, then he shall) enter into his sanctuary to pray, he shall
not prevail 'y but either -when he shall have appeared or when he
shall have wearied himself, should probably be omitted as due
to dittography; in the former case the inconsistency with 15^,
where Moab is depicted as being actually and already on the
high places, which might doubtless be attributed to the careless-
ness of the interpolater, disappears. For the wearisome practices
of the heathen, cp. 47^', i K 1826^-.
6. nxD Kj] looks suspiciously like a dittograph of 3K0 |N3. In Jer. the Air.
X€7. KJ is replaced by hkj. — vnajn uikjt imnj] one of the first two words is not
294 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
m
represented in (ffir : the last was misread 'my3. Jer 482^ reads iniKJi wikji insj,
but v.**" contains "imay (immediately before ma p nVi). — p n*?] treated by many
as a compound noun, the untruth {of his pratings) ; but it is questionable
whether such combinations as din nS in 31^ (G-K. 152a footnote) were ever
so completely treated as a single word that they could be used in the con-
struct, p vh is predicative ; cp. (5.-7. '?*'?" n'?3 nNiD"? dnid V'^" pS] the re-
peated S'^" (so ^) is probably an error (cp. Iii^n., 26' n.) : Jer 48" reads p Sy
pyiN n'?3 3nid'?i V''?'k 3N1D ^y ; note also that in Jer "j'^'k governs by means of
•^y, and pym by means of ^, as in Is 15^- ^ respectively. On the question of
1st pers. or 3rd (in Jer (&. 2nd pi. imper.), see above. In spite of DnsD
DnxD2 (19*), 3N1dV aNiD V'S" remains awkward, whether we interpret Moab
howls for {over) Moab (Ges., Di.), or Moab howls to Moaby i.e. they howl
to one another (Marti). Nor is it altogether satisfactory to place the caesura
before nxiD"?: for entire Moab he howls.— ■'w^'\ Jer ^rJK •?« = © here. —
ntynn Tp] So 2 K 3^5 |§ ; but v.", Jer 4831- ^ tynn n^p.— ijnn] Jer 4821 nj^' ;
®r here /tteXer7j(rets = njnn : read njn« ; others conjecture un (n dittographic
from riB'nn) or u.t. — D'ks: HN] not in Jer. dR xal o^/c ivrpaTri^a-ri. If the text is
correct, for D'K33, implying N33 = nD3, cp. ntoj nn, Pr 15^2 1722, and the Niph. of
the vb. Job 30't; 1»<, utterly, as in 19" ; see BDB, i.z/.— 8-10. Most of the
ten or eleven lines in these verses are certainly of four accents ; but vv.^a* »*•
at present are of six. Possibly jne'n vrxTW and nSySxi jnt^n are glosses : note
that the 2nd sing. fem. suffixes in v.* refer naturally to the sing, rvoiv }BJ and
not to the pi. nSySni jUtrn. — 8. ^"^dk] the sing, after the fem. pi. moiB' would
be abnormal in spite of Hab 3" and G-K. 145^ ; on the other hand, if 'n monr
be omitted (see last n.), the sing. masc. before the fem. pa would be normal
(G-K. 145^7) : cp. 2" 9^8 14" etc. : yet ct. p3 nSSox, 24'.— .Tpntr] (J5 ri<f
dfiTT^Xovs airrjs ; rather red-clusters (cp. pT^ of the colour of horses in Zee I*),
whence the pntt' (5^) vine receives its name. — 9. "P'''»*] an error for TnK with
retention of the final radical ' (G-K. IS^d) ; on the form, see Sta. 634^ :
Kon. i. 589 f. ; in ®r the penultimate letter must have been \ — 'd] Jer 48*2
cm. — HTn] Jer mis' : ffi here koX Trdura. — 10. ^okji] sing, before a com-
pound subj. ; G-K. I45(?; Jer hsdnji ; G-K. 146/, ^.— SD^3^ p] Jer Vd-idd,
which carries us back half-way to l(')Dn3D, the reading of Is ffli»<AQr {iK rdv
d/iireXibvcav ffov), and probably the original text. The clause is followed in
Jer by 3kid pxDi, which is a fairly obvious gloss explaining that the whole
country and not only the garden land will grieve. In ^ there follows D'Dnaai
pT «h, which looks at first more likely to be original, but the first word is
probably merely a corrupt variant of TDHDD, and ]iV n*? is an explanation of
the following yyT nh after that corrupt reading had arisen. We thus explain
the absence of 3N1D pNDi from Is and of jn' nh D'DnD3i from Jer. — yi/h; . . . |}-i;]
cp. Zeph 3" ; but the forms are probably no original part of the text : see
preceding and following notes. As they stand they are impersonal passives :
G-K. 144/t. (K may have read iJ3n\— 'nntrn irn innn ^^T h^ D'3p'3 p' yyT K*?]
Jer 48^ m'n t<h m'n m\n nm' h^ 'nac'n D'ap'O |"i ; Is (K Kal oi fi^ iraTi^a-ovffiv
oXvov els rd. iiroX-fivia, ^iTravTaiydp = n2e;n D'2p'2 }" 13m' t<h, which is probably
the original text or quite close to it : note that it is a line of four accents
equally divided by the caesura. The overlined words in f^ are amplifications.
XVI. 6-14, XVII. i-ii 295
partly due to glosses and partly due to dittography. In Is J^, moreover, ViH'
is a corruption of (i)3it, for ffi's Tan^ovctv corresponds to this and not to
T»T below (note the order in ffi). Perhaps Qop'D (Jer J^) is preferable to
Isf^dS Q'3p'3 ; with D nam, cp. the use of the Niph. in 17* and of the Hiph.
in Lv 26«, Jer 36»— ynn T"' kS] cstr. as 28*-^: cp. G-K. 144/r.— 12. Ew.
treated the whole v. as a protasis, and supplied from Jer 48^' as an apodosis
ino3D roDD 3K1D r3i : so Che. SBOT; but this is improbable, since v." is
absent from Jer.— noan] ^ pi. ; cp. nioan, 15' ^ (not ffi).— Sav kVi] Ae shall
mut with no success : for the absolute use of the vb., cp. Ps 21'', Jer 5" 20".
13, 14. A Prose Appendix (cp. 2ii«f) to the foregoing
Oracle of Moab, probably by a later hand (see above). In
three brief years all will be fulfilled : Moab, as yet still honoured
and numerous, will become despised and almost exterminated. —
13. The word which Yahweh spoke] this description suits the
interpolated section 15^^-16*; for the speaker in 15^^ is Yahweh,
but the speaker throughout the parts common to Jer and Is is
not. — In time past] the phrase TKD may refer to a past falling
within the speaker's own mature life (2 S 15^), or to a more
remote past (Ps 93^, Pr S^^). In 448, as here, it refers to old
prophecies. — As the years of a hireling] years strictly reckoned; the
hireling works no longer than he must. Du. explains differently :
it will only be necessary to hire the mercenaries (i^DK' as in Jer
46^1) for the usual period of 3 years, and sees an allusion to the
use by Alexander Jannaeus of mercenary troops. — The glory of
Moab] cp. the glory of Assyria, 10^^; of Kedar, 21**. — 14. nan
TWS] (Sr Xeyo).— -lytD OVO] io2« 2^^"^^,
XVII. I-II. TTie coming Destruction of Syria and Ephraim.
The text is faulty ; but there can be little doubt that the poem consisted
mainly if not exclusively of distichs of balanced and, generally, parallel lines.
But the length of line varies in different distichs ; vv.***- "• "*• '' are clear
instances of 3 : 3, which was probably the most frequent rhythm, and v.*"* *
of a longer distich, probably 4 : 4.
The original poem contains three equal or nearly equal strophes ; the first
and second each consists of 8 lines and an additional line containing a con-
cluding formula ; the second, like the third, strophe contains also an opening
formula: the third strophe contained lo lines, unless we reject two as
intrusive.
Vv."' appear to be an addition to the poem (see comm.), and are placed
at the end of, and separated from, the poem itself in the following translation.
296
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
I.
1 Lo ! Damascus is about to be removed from being a city,
And it shall become a a ruin ^ * forsaken for ever *
Flocks shall possess *her cities,'
And lie down, with none to terrify (them) away.
^ And Ephraim shall lose (her) fortress.
And the sovereignty [shall be taken away] from
Damascus
And the remainder of Aram . . .
Like the glory of the sons of Israel shall they be —
Is the Oracle of Yahweh of Hosts.
i
2.
m
* And it shall come to pass in that day,
The glory of Jacob shall be diminished.
And the fat of his flesh shall become lean ;
^ And it shall be as when a reaper gathereth standing corn,
And his arm reaps off the ears a a ;
Or ^^as when an olive-tree is struck,
** And there remains thereon something to glean —
^'^ Two or three berries on the uppermost branch,
Four or five on the boughs of the fruit tree —
Is the oracle of Yahweh, God of Israel.
• In that day
*Thy' cities shall become forsaken (ruins),
Like the forsaken (ruins) of * the Amorites and Hivites,'
Which they forsook before the children of Israel, and it shall become
a desolation.
1® Because thou forgattest the God of thy salvation,
And didst not remember the Rock, thy Refuge,
Therefore (though) thou plantest plantations of Adonis,
And puttest in (vine-)cuttings of an alien (god),
^^ (And though) on the day thou plantest, thou make (it) grow.
And (though) on the morrow thou make thy seed
blossom —
The harvest has fled (?) in the day of sickness (?),
And incurable pain ...
XVII. i-ii 297
^ In that day shall man regard his Maker,
And his eyes shall look towards the Holy One of
Israel ;
8 And he shall not regard the a work of his hands
Nor look upon what his fingers have wrought, a a
The first strophe is devoted mainly to the fate of Syria, but
incidentally also to that of Ephraim. Syria is to lose its inde-
pendence : Damascus, the capital, and other cities are to be
reduced to perpetual desolation. The last two strophes are
devoted exclusively to Ephraim, i.e. the Northern kingdom of
Israel : in strophe 2 the almost total depopulation of Ephraim is
depicted under three figures : strophe 3 dwells on the inutility in
the day of disaster of those cults to which Ephraim had devoted
itself. In w.'^^- the point of the last strophe is universalised :
all mankind will be convinced in the coming day of the inutility
of works of men's hands, and will turn instead to the Holy One
of Israel, who is also Maker of mankind.
The poem was composed before the Fall of Damascus
(732 B.C.), and, as we may infer from the coupling of Ephraim
and Damascus, after the formation of the Syro-Ephraimitish
alliance (ch. 7), which took place about 736 b.c.
The predictions were in large part fulfilled : Re§on (7^ n.)
was the last native sovereign of Damascus ; he was slain by
Tiglath-pileser (2 K 16®), who was not in the West after 732 B.C.,
and with him " the sovereignty was taken away from Damascus "
(v.^), which became an Assyrian province {KAT^ i35)- Though
less complete and lasting than Isaiah expected (for Damascus
never actually became an uninhabited spot), the devastation of
Damascus and the neighbouring country in 732 b.c. was great.
Tiglath-pileser speaks of cutting down numberless gardens and
plantations, carrying off many captives with their property, and
wasting 591 cities of 16 districts of the land of Damascus: see
his Annals^ 11. 203-209. The full fate of Ephraim was not
simultaneous, as Isaiah seems to have expected it to be, with
that of Damascus: Samaria survived till 722 B.C. : then the fall
of the city was followed by such extensive deportations of the
Israelite population as go far to justify the terms of w.*^: see
2 K 17 and Sargon's annals.
I, The Oracle of Damascus] 13^ n. The title is taken from
298 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
the first important word only, and so ignores the main subject
of the piece — Ephraim.
1-3. The fate of Damascus. — On the emendations
adopted in the translation, see phil. n. — I. Is about to be removed^
immediately: not present tense is taken away (EV), nor in v.^ are
forsaken : those renderings are, indeed, grammatically legitimate
(7I* n.), but unsuitable here. — 2. Flocks shall possess^ S^'^ n. —
Her cities\ i.e, the towns of the country dependent on Damascus :
cp- Jer 34^ 49^^ 51^^. J^ (not ffi) reads the cities of ^Arder\
this strange phrase, which is really due to corruption of the
text, has been explained, unsatisfactorily, in various ways : (1) the
two cities of the name of *Aro*er, one on the northern edge
of the defile of the Arnon (162 n. : cp. Nu 32^* n.), the other
near Rabbath-Ammon (Jos 13^^); (2) the cities dependent on
the more northern (which is, however, the less important) of the
two *Aro*ers; both (i) and (2) are hazardously understood to
mean the country E. of Jordan : both *Aro*ers are remote from
Damascus; (3) Di. gives *Aro*er an appellative force, so that
the phrase means the ruined cities \ feeble and improbable. —
3. Fortress\ perhaps Samaria * the capital, or, giving "l^:^D a
collective force, all Xki'i fortresses \ of the Northern kingdom are
intended ; but on either of these interpretations this line anti-
cipates v.*. More probably Damascus { is meant ; owing to its
geographical situation, Damascus first invited the attack of the
Assyrians coming E., and so formed a bulwark or fortress of
Ephraim. On this interpretation the line, in common with the
rest of v.^, threatens Damascus, while at the same time together
with the following words, like the glory of the children of Israel
(cp. V.*), they form a transition to vv.*-^- ^-^^ which threaten
Ephraim exclusively. — The sovereignty^ see above.
1. nn'm . . . noiD . . . njn] fut. instans (Dr. § 135 (2)), followed by the
pf. with waw conv. [ib. § 113). The change from iDiD (Du. moiD) to nn'm is
strange, unless pt^DT is ace. to "IDID (cp. e.g. Ps 87^; G-K. \z\b). — tj;d] a
poetical breviloquence for ry nvnD : cp. 7' 52^* ; BDB 583a.— i, 2. 'j;o nn'm
"liny ny nmy n'?£3D] CR koX ^trrat ets tttCxtlv KaToXeXi/Ji/xePT] els rhv a^(3i'a = nn'm
ny 'ny niiy n'?DD('?). The non-form 'yo in |§ is a scribal error later than fflr : not,
however, for 'yS (Di.), but through dittography of [nj'yo. For the rest, (& is
near the original text : read lynaiy. n'?2D('?) nn'ni, which balances the preceding
* Ges., Hitz., Che. (SBOT), Whitehouse. t W> Del.
t Jer., Eichh., Ew., Di., Du., Skinner, Marti.
XVII. 1-6 299
parallel line, and then nnj; as subj. of nynn ; with ny ^7% cp. oSiy mn, Jei
20"**, and see Kon. iii. 336^. The detection of nny is due to Lag. and Du. —
nj'^ij] heret, but n^gp, 23'' 25^!. — 3. If the poem showed any other trace of
the 3 : 2 rhythm, the text of ^ down to pvQiD need awaken no suspicion ; the
remainder too, could, of course, be construed, dhk n«r being casus pendens
before v.T (RVmarg.) rather than a clause coupled with prCTD (RV); but
however taken it would be rhythmically quite unlike the rest of the poem, and
also lacking in parallelism. The first and third lines seem to be correct ;
each of the intervening clauses has probably lost a word : after prmo perhaps
niy^n, shall pass away^ or k^: (cp. 8^), has dropped out. (K paraphrases
throughout, and on the whole remarkably well : it is doubtful whether it read
differently except ti33? for nna and perhaps vrm for x^"". Du. proposes n3K'
for ni33D ; but it is hazardous to claim (K for this, for ov ybip <tv peXrluv el is
probably a paraphrase of iu3D, and Kal r^s Sd^rfs airrdv at the end of the v.
a subsequent addition to (&.
4-6. The fate of Ephraim. — 4. The nation is personified
(cp. i*^ n.) as a man whose glory^ i.e. reputation among his
neighbours, will become slight (through lack of children : cp.
Hos 9^1-1^; ct. Ps 127), and whose once well-nourished body will
become lean (cp. lo^^). Or possibly, with the precarious
support of 10^^, we might render his glory . . . will become
impoverished (cp. adj. pn), i.e. Jacob will exchange the outward
marks in dress, etc., of a prosperous man for the garb of a pauper.
Glory is not, as in 5^^ (n.), dignitaries^ the nobility \ for this would
make Jacob the literal nation in v.^, the personified nation in
v.***. — 5> 6. The point of these verses is clear ; compared with
what the population was before, the survivors in the Northern
kingdom will be as few as the ears of corn left uncut, or dropped
by the reapers, or as the olive berries still left on a tree after it
has been beaten (cjpi, 24^^, cp. 10^; lD3n, Dt 24^0) with poles to
bring down the crop. But in J^ these comparisons are awkwardly
expressed. V.^- ^ alone sufficiently suggests the figure from
com harvest : still it may have been followed by a distich com-
pleting the figure by reference to the few ears left for gleaners :
cp. the completion of the figure of the olive crop. But v.^*' (left
untranslated above), which is rhythmically defective, instead of
completing the figure, starts off as if it were a fresh figure, And
it shall be as a gleaner of ears of corn in the vale of Rephaim^
a fruitful vale in the neighbourhood of Bethlehem (Jos 15^).
These words are probably either a gloss (Marti) or a mutilated
distich. In v.^ the difficulties are even more serious; n^OT
means the gleaning of grapes, or olives, not the gleaning of grain,
300 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
which is expressed by Dp7 (so v.^^) ; consequently v.^* is no
proper continuation of v.^*' ; and M, therein^ or thereof^ cannot
refer to the vale of Rephaim. RV is thus doubly misleading,
for gleaning in English without any qualification suggests gleaning
of grain. Further, in f^ the figure of the olives, which is the
real parallel to v.^*- ^, can refer directly to Jacob only if i3>
meaning of him (i^n.), resumes the distant 2pV^ of v.*; otherwise
it is a comparison within a comparison. For Marti's emendation
adopted above, which avoids these improbabilities, see phil. n. —
Reaps off the ears] in reaping, the stalks of corn were reaped near
the top, so that little more than the ears were cut off: see JEBi.,
Agriculture^ § 7, with illustrations. — 6. Two (or) three . . . four
(or) five\ an indefinite but trivial number : cp. 2 K 9^2^ Hos 6^,
Jer 36^3, and see G-K. 134J. — The fruit tree] hap-poriyyah^ with
a punning reference to the popular etymology of Ephraim ;
Gn 4924, Hos 13I6.
5. "I'sp] harvest, would be superfluous before ncp : either Tsp also meant
harvester, or n^p must be read. — nsp» . . . lyni] one of the rare instances of
jni being masc. (G-K. I22a/ ; Kon. 2490^); or an instance of the "double
subject" (G-K. 144/, in). — 5, 6. Against the present text, see Comm. ttpSoD
D'K£n pDyn D'Snty is a gloss or mutilated distich : then by transposition read
niVVy 13 nNCJi nn »]p33 .t.ti. — CKsn] (!& onfuq. : ct. 14* 26^". Che. rather pre-
cariously reads Dn'3K on the authority of fflr. — mSVy] possibly, as in NH (see
Levy), this meant not only gleaning, but berries picked after the crop had been
gathered (cp. AV) : then onaia in the next line may be a gloss : its omission
assimilates lines 6b. c and gives a better balance. — tdnI v.*, Gn 49^', both
doubtful : in Gen. the meaning tipper branch, crown, would be suitable : for
evidence that the root implied height, see BDB 55^. — n'ns n'syoa] read
rt'nsn 'syon : it is not a case of the anticipative suffix (G-K. I3i«).
7, 8. Mankind will reject their idols and turn to the
God of Israel, the Maker of all men. — The insertion of
this passage, with its universal outlook, between vv.^*^ and ^'^^,
which are strictly limited in their outlook to Damascus and
Ephraim, may be due to an interpolator ; as an alternative it
might be held that the verses are a misplaced conclusion to the
poem : they would stand less awkwardly after v.^^. The ideas
rather suggest a relatively late writer : cp., with the thought of
Yahweh as Maker, 5113 545^ of the idols as man made, 44^-20.
On the other hand, the wide outlook has its parallel in Is
(210.11.17^ cp. perhaps 220 3022, ^os 8i4) ; cp., further, i29; and
note t«-iD'^ m^X^ (i*n. 1260.) and fjy (22*) nVB^ (31I).
XVII. 5-1 i 301
8. The work of his hands . . . wha/ his fingers have made\
these parallel and synonymous expressions mean idols : cp.
2^ 31^ 37^®. Hos 14*, Mic 5*2, Dt 42*. An early annotator,
whose notes have crept into the text, destroying the rhythm
and spoiling the style, erroneously understood by the first term
the (multiplicity of) altars condemned by Dt., and by the second,
less erroneously but too specifically, the Asheriniy i.e. the wooden
pillars which stood beside the old Canaanite altars, but which
were forbidden in the worship of Yahweh (cp. Ex 34*3, Jg
625, Dt 1 621), and the hammanim (278, Lv 26^0, Ezk 6*-«,
2 Ch 14* 34^- '^t) ct. 2 K 23), which were objects, probably of
stone or metal, associated with heathen altars, and perhaps a
special form of massebah (19^^ n.). The rendering sun-images
(RV), which suggests that these objects were specially or
exclusively used in the worship of the sun, rests on a question-
able derivation from the late Hebrew word ntsn. sun : see Moore
T - '
in EBi. 2976; G. A. Cooke, iVLS"/, p. 104; Ges-B. s.v.; L.B. Paton,
art "Baal," in Encyc. of Re I. and Ethics ^ especially pp. 287 f.
8. D'jonni D'nrK.Ti] either the first waw is the waw explicatwum that is
often found in glosses (Haupt in SBOT), or the two wa.vfs = do^A . . . and
(BDB, 253a). — pn] cp. in Palm. vDvh . . . m KnSyi nn Hion, this Ijjiamman
and this altar . , , to Shamash — Cooke, NSI^ no. 136 (a.d. 85) : cp. Lidz.
Eph. ii. p. 280 (a.d. 108). In the frequent Punic epithet pnSya, jon may
be attributive (cp. pmay) rather than the cult object in the gen.
9-1 1. Ephraim in the hour of calamity will get no
help from her heathen cults. — 9. Thy cities shall be
abandoned] so ffi ; fl^ has instead the cities in which he finds
refuge^ or asylum 'y with nyo, asylum, cp. IT^yn, 10^^ n. ffi, with
its transition from the 3rd pers. of vv.**^ to the 2nd pers. of
address at the beginning of the strophe, is preferable to J^, where
the same transition does not take place till v.^®. — Forsaken
{ruins) of the Amorites and the Hivites'\ cp. (&; this may be
correct, though the reference to Hivites, who apparently formed
a rather insignificant part of the old Canaanitish population, is
a little suspicious ; for Amorites, cp. Am 2®^-. J^ is supposed
to mean, like the forsaken {ruins) of the wood and the mountain
top ; for a defence of this, see Del. 6r supplies, what J^ does
not, a personal antecedent for the following words, which they
forsook (so far ^ only ; fir om.) from before the children of Israel
— ^a prosaic clause, and probably an annotation. — A?td it shall
302 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
become a desolatioii\ these words, too, are rhythmically suspicious,
and the context does not explain the subject : they may be a
further gloss (Du.), or perhaps a fragment of another distich. —
lOa. b. To the ideas and expressions of these lines many
parallels may be found in Deut. and later literature ; see, e.g.^
Dt 811-19 ,5218; and for the God of thy salvation, Ps 18^1 (|| "my
rock") 25^ 27^ 62''; for the Rock thy Refuge, see Ps 31^, and
compare the similar combinations in Ps 62^ Zf^"^ 95I 94^^. On
account of this late ring about the v., and the generality of the
charge against Ephraim, Marti thinks the lines are a glossator's
attempt to assign the cause for Ephraim's fate. — Adonis-planta-
tions . . . (vine-) cuttings of an alien (god^ the adj. IT, alien (i^ n.),
appears to be an abbreviation here for the full phrase alien god
(Ps 44^1 8ii^), cp. "irifc?, another = another god, in Ps 16* This
parallelism suggests that D''3Dy3 in the previous line refers to
some deity, though direct proof that Tammuz (Ezk 8^^), known
to the Greek as Adonis (pit?), was known in Syria by the name or
epithet Na'aman is not forthcoming. But whatever be the
exact explanation of D"'30j;3, there is little doubt that the prophet
is alluding to a custom similar to, if not in all respects identical
with, the gardens of Adonis described by Greek writers. These
gardens " were baskets or pots filled with earth, in which wheat,
barley, lettuce, pease, and various kinds of flowers were sown
and tended for eight days. . . . Fostered by the sun's heat, the
plants shot up rapidly, but having no root, withered as rapidly
away. . . . These gardens are most naturally interpreted as repre-
sentatives of Adonis or manifestations of his powers. . . . The
rapid growth of the wheat and barley in the garden of Adonis
was intended to make the corn shoot up."* Some think that
the prominent part taken by women in these rites accounts for
Israel being here addressed in the 2nd pers. fem. The point
of the prophet seems to be : you may resort to foreign gods,
they will leave you helpless in the day of calamity; you may
plant these symbols of fertility and bring them without difficulty
to leaf and blossom, but the harvest you wish to secure thereby
will never come. The text of the last two lines is uncertain
and the exact meaning doubtful (see phil. n.) : if the day of
calamity is there described as the day of sickness and incurable
* Frazer, Golden Bough^, ii. 120, 121 ; see, further, the authors cited by
him, and in EBi.^ art. "Adonis" ; Che. SBOT^ p. 146 (with illustration).
XVII. 9-1 1, 12-14 303
paiuy Du. may be right in inferring that the women used the
plants of Adonis, or their produce, as magical cures.
9. inyD "ly] ffi ol vh\ti% <rov ^KaTa\€\lf^u4val = T)^^V y\]l. Cond. pro-
poses l»yD ny, Mj/ strong cities — possible, but not the reading of 6r. — n2iiy3
SKir' 03 '3SD uty ne^K tdk.ti rnnn] (Br hv rpoirov Kar^Xiirov ol 'Afioppacoi Kal ol
Evaioi dir6 Trpoffutwov tCjp vluv 'I(rpaiJ\ = V '33 '3BD inni 'tdkh n3ijy3 ; (Bf either
neglects, or more probably did not read, I3iy "wh, a phrase which may have
been inserted between the date of (Br and the transposition and corruption
of in.Ti 'TDKH into tdkhi v\nn. — xo. DODyj 'yea] if this is a "double" pi.
(G-K. 124^) of pi!3 yeJ, meaning plantations of Ndaman (cp. Gk. /t^irot
*A5(i»'i5o$), it is a unique instance of the genitive being a proper name. (Br
paraphrases both D'JDyj here and ni in the next line by dirwroi', probably
detecting in each case a reference to false worship. — uynin] the suffix is
supposed to refer to the place of planting, which may be understood from,
but is not mentioned in, the context. More probably the 1 should go with
DV3 in v.^'^ and lynin (G-K. 47<»), or 'ynin, 2nd fem., like the neighbouring vbs.,
was originally read here. — ll. "ivvsr^ should be Pilpel of Jir or JJr; 31b,
33b, and 3i» do not occur elsewhere in Heb., and 33B>, to wander^ with which
ffir connects it, jdelds no sense. Ges., Di., RV, BDB connect the present
form with 3iD (Ca 7't — common in Aramaic), to fence about: Ki., Ibn Ezra,
AV, Du., Marti give it the meaning to cause to growy cp. K3b, TM\ff, to grow ^
grow great. — n3] (Br (eis), C perhaps read ny, which is hardly right ; but see
Ges-B. MT (AV, RVmarg.) nj, a heap (of water. Ex 158, Jos z^^' ^*, Ps 33'
78^t, is very improbable; nj, 3rd pf. of m3, to flee away (cp. 21" 22'), is
more probable ; but even this is doubtful. — n^n3 dV3] the day of inheritance
(AVmarg.) would be the most obvious rendering, but in the context an
unsuitable meaning. ^, ]^., Ibn Ezra, and most modern commentators
render in the day of sickness^ taking n^n3, Niph. Part, of nVn, as elliptical
for nVn3 7\2i^ (Jer 14"), or as itself substantival (cp. nj«nn3, 10® n.). — 3K31
Bn3K] (Br Kal Jjj var^p &vdpihirov KKrjpiixr-Q toTs vloh <rov : this perhaps rests
on a longer text than ^. ^ in v.""- ** is doubtful ; see the preceding notes,
and note that the rhythm is questionable. Cp. Jer 30'^ 13K3D vmh.
XVII. 1 2-14. — T/ig roar of the peoples stilled.
The opening interjection in stands by itself (see p. 89) : the first five
words of V." (omitted in the translation) are a dittograph (with one slight
variant) of the last five words of v."; Dn'33 has accidentally shifted from
y 12c tod. in v,i4a makkeph anyny"? ; v.^^a jg short in |§, but ni-T should be
added ; and ^** is a short concluding line unless ^ be original (see phil. n. )
and WHS*? be read as two accents. The little poem consisted of 3 : 3 distichs,
two distichs making a strophe.
Ahl
^ The booming of many peoples !
Like the booming of seas they boom !
And the roar of mighty nations !
As with the roar of waters do they roar ! a a a
304 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
^^ But [Yahweh] shall rebuke him,
And he shall flee far away and be pursued —
l^ike chaff of the mountains before the wind,
And as the whirling (dust) before the tempest.
^* At eventide — lo ! terror,
Ere morning he shall be no more.
This (shall be) the lot of them that spoil us,
And the portion of them that plunder us.
The poem describes a future that unfolds itself to its prophetic
author ; under the figure of a stormy sea, suggested perhaps by
the ancient myth of the conflict between the primeval flood and
the Creator, the first strophe depicts the onset of a vast army ;
the army's goal is not stated, we may pretty safely assume that
Jerusalem was in the poet's mind. The second strophe predicts
the scattering and flight of this menacing power ; this is to be
the result of the rebuke of One who, in the present text, is
unnamed; unquestionably Yahweh is intended. The third
strophe dwells on the suddenness and completeness with which
the peril will pass, yet in its closing distich alludes to the
spoliation and plunder to which the poet's countrymen (the
Jews) are subject as he writes.
Thus the poem seems to imply an invasion (of Judah), and
the writer's conviction that worse is yet to threaten, but at the
last moment, and suddenly, by the will of Yahweh, to be averted.
The poem is thus the prophetic anticipation of such a course
of events as is attributed in ch. 36 f. (cp. especially 37^^^-) to
Sennacherib's campaign against Palestine, and in particular
Judah, in 701. It is therefore assigned to Isaiah, and referred
to that date by many scholars ; by others with much less reason
to other periods of Isaiah's activity — to 735 (Hitz., Del.) or
^.723 (Che. Introd.y
Since Assyria is not mentioned, it is, of course, possible that
this poem, like Ps 46, was not actually written at the time of
Sennacherib's campaign, but is merely reminiscent of the story
of that campaign, and predictive of a similar issue out of like
dangers in some later age.
Mainly on the ground of the reference to "many nations"
(y.i2), Sta. {ZATIV, 1883, p. 16) and Marti consider the poem
to be later than the age of Isaiah, and to refer, like 5^^ lo^^^-, Jl
XVII. 12-14 305
4^*, Ps 46, to the fruitless assault of the nations of the world on
Jerusalem. But it may be questioned whetlier this view so well
accounts for the transition from the plurality of nations in v.'^ iq
the singular in vv.'"*'^^'', as the more commonly accepted explana-
tion that the nations of v.^^ are the many diverse peoples that
composed the Assyrian army, and that the singular of v.^*^^-, as in
525-29 iq5 etc., is Assyria itself; in v.^*''* ^ the plural is distributive,
the Assyrians, rather than a resumption of the plurals, nations,
peoples, in v. ^2.
The arguments against the Isaianic authorship are incon-
clusive ; those in favour of it are as strong as from the nature of
the case could be expected.
The question has been much discussed whether 17^^'^* is (a) an inde-
pendent poem or (Lowth, Eich., Che., Marti) fragment, or {b) the conclusion
of 17^"" (Del. al.), or (f) the introductory strophe of a poem completed m
ch. 18 (Ges., Ew., Di., Du., Cond.). Against c. is the fact that 17^*
certainly reads like the end of a poem (cp. Jg 5^^), as is admitted by Ges.,
and that 18^, with its apostrophe to a land not contemplated in I7''"^\ is
best taken as independent. The similar outlook in 17"'- and 18^"^ does not
prove that both passages formed part of the same poem ; and even if i8' calls
for an explanation of the pronoun they, 17^* supplies it very ill. Far less
probable is the view that I7^'"^'^* is the conclusion of 17^'" ; not only is the
strophic structure of the two pieces apparently different, but no satisfactory
connection can be established.
12. Cp. 13* of the tumultuous onset of the Medes against
Babylon, and Jl 4^* of the final and fruitless assault of the
nations on Jerusalem. With the present comparison of an army
to threatening waters, cp. 8^. — 13. Yahwe}i\ since the word is
emphatic it can scarcely be supplied in thought, but must have
fallen out of the text. — Him\ Assyria : cp. for the use of the
singular, 526-29^ — Yox the power of Yahweh's rebuke, which is but
a special form of the power of His word (9^ n.), see Ps 9^ 76''
104'^ 106^. — Like chafi of the mountains^ chaff winnowed on the
lofty and windy places which were chosen by preference for
winnowing. For the figure, see especially 29^. — Whirling
(dust)] hihy parallel here to yo as in Ps 831* to U^p.— 14. Suddenly
all is over: cp. especially 37^^^*, also Ps 30^, Job 27^^.
12. D'D'] pi. as in Gn i'" (P), Dn ii*°, and poetry of all periods, g.g^. Jg
5", Gn 49", Ezk 27*, Ps 78^^— p'on^] for the radical ' and the ending p, see
G-K. 75« and 47W. See also 31', and in late passages 21^2 26" 33' 418. —
pKB" nn'33 D'D jiKB'D d'DnS pKBn] Symmetry of structure and rhythm with v.^^ab.
is obtained by transposing D'tdd and placing it after D'DkS ; a trace of this
VOL. I. — 20
306 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
reading is perhaps to be found in ffi Kal vCyros idvdv iroWCov ws (J5a>/) t^x^'^^'-
— 13. pNB" . . . d'Dn'?] S omits ; the words are dittographic. — 13 nyai] both the
shortness of the line and the need for direct reference to mn' indicate some
loss in the text. — onn fOD] Cond. suggests omn in place of cnn : cp. (& tis
Xvovv dx^pov XiK/McivTcov, and note mr = XiK/taj', 30'"^ 41^' etc. Others omit onn
altogether on the ground of metre (Kit., Box) ; but if «]Tt be taken with D3i
pnTDD, as it should be, the metrical objection falls to the ground. — 14. any ny^
njni] cp. rum 'o'rnn, Gn 40^ ; but this use of 1 except with the " consecutives " is
more or less uncommon (BDB 254^ bot.). (& irpbs iairipav Kal l<rrai, possibly
n'm instead of Ti':in\ — ijrN] © and some Heb. MSS 133'ni : then cp. last n.
— n'lii^] the ^, if not dittographic from VniJ, was perhaps deliberately pre-
ferred for rhythmical reasons.
XVIII.-XX.— ^^_y// and Ethiopia.
In these chapters several prophecies dealing with Cush and
Misraim (Introd. §§ 68 f.), i.e., on the usual interpretation of
these terms, with Ethiopia and Egypt, are here grouped together.
One of these was derived from the "Book of Oracles" on
foreign nations (see 19^), the rest probably from different sources
(Introd. § 34).
XVIII. — The Dismissal of the {Ethiopian) Envoys*
Special Literature : — H. Winckler, Das Land Kus u. Jes. 18 '\n ATUnter-
suchungen, 146-156; Stade, de Isaiae vatic. Aeth^ 1873.
Vv.^"^ consist of distichs of lines parallel in sense (except v.^** *>), and
balanced in rhythm (except v.*** ** which is 4 : 2, and '*'• * which is most
easily read as 3 : 4). The length of the balanced distichs is mostly 3 : 3,
but it is 2 : 2 in v.^ ** and 4 : 4 in vv.'*"- ^' ^- *». In vv.^* ^ both rhythm and
parallelism have probably been disturbed by textual corruption ; v.^* ^ is
2 . 2 . y 2c. g look at present like isolated stichoi; what intervenes between
2" and ^ is perhaps an expansion of a distich ; for suggestions with regard to
lb. 2c. g ggg below. In w.'"* two distichs form a strophe.
^ Ah ! land of the whirring (?) of wings,
Which is beyond the rivers of Cush !
2 Which sendeth envoys (?) on the sea,
And A vessels of papyrus on the face of the water.
Go, ye fleet messengers,
To a nation tall (?) and of polished appearance (?),
To a people terrible . . .
A nation mighty (?) and down-treading,
Whose land rivers dissect (?).
XVII. 13, 14; XVIII 3^7
' All ye inhabitants of the world,
And dwellers on earth,
When a mountain-signal is raised, see !
When the trumpet is blown, hearken !
* For thus hath Yahweh said to me,
I will be quiet and look forth in my abode.
Like the dazzling heat above the light.
Like a cloud of night-mist in * time ' of harvest.
^ For before the harvest, when the blossom is over,
And the seed-berry becomes a ripening grape ;
The branches shall be cut off with pruning-knives,
And the tendrils removed, cut away.
* They shall be abandoned one and all to the carrion birds
of the mountains.
And to the beasts of the land;
And the carrion birds shall summer upon them,
And all the beasts of the land shall winter upon them.
An obscure and difficult poem, obscure too, if, as Marti has
argued, it is rather a combination of different short poems
(yyi. 2. 4 . 3 . 5. 6 — ^\^q j^st being the misplaced conclusion of 1 7^"^^).
The poem opens with an apostrophe to a land (v.^) which
has sent (or, is sending) envoys by water, v. 2*- ^. V.2«-8 contains
words addressed to these envoys, bidding them depart to a
people some of whose national characteristics, such as their
might and their power to inspire terror, are particularised, and
whose land is described as dissected (?) by rivers. V.^ is a
warning, addressed to the world at large, to give heed when
signals of war shall appear. In v.*, the poet claims to have
received a revelation that Yahweh will watch immovable, unseen,
unshaken. V.^, under the figure of a grape-crop ripening to the
vintage, predicts calamity and destruction, which in v.^ are more
literally described — certain people, unnamed, will perish and lie
long unburied, a prey to carrion birds and beasts.
Not to speak here of difficulties of connection between the
parts (see below on vv.^ and ^), the poem yields no clear and
unambiguous answer to the following questions among others
which are yet necessarily raised by it: — i. What is the land
305 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
addressed in v.^ ? 2. Who delivers to the envoys the message
recorded in v.^? 3. Who, or what, is figured forth by the
ripening crops of v.*? 4. Who are the people that are to lie
unburied ?
V.i^ seems to distinguish the land apostrophised in v.^* from
the land of Cush as one more remote from the Jewish writer :
nevertheless it is customary to identify "the land beyond the
rivers of Cush " with the land of Cush itself Further, with the
exception of Winckler,* — who at one time regarded Cush as
Kash, i.e. Southern Babylonia, a land of canals, swamps, and reed-
thickets, and infested with insects, — most writers identify Cush
with "Ethiopia," with the country, that is to say, which the
Egyptians called K's and Ks.
If we disregard v.^^ as being a gloss, or rendered unintelligible
through corruption, we may perhaps infer from the description
in v.^^- ^"^ (see notes) that the unnamed land apostrophised is
Ethiopia, and see in w.^* ^ some trace of " wonder at the
mysterious country and of regard for its people who by their
advance against Egypt had won [from c. 712 B.C. onwards] a
place among the leading powers of their time" (A. Alt, Israel u.
Egypten^ p. 83). V.^? is less favourable to this identification.
As to the second question : the general tenor of the message
in v.2*^"^ is against the view, implied by the insertion of saying in
EV, that it is addressed to the envoys by those who despatched
them ; it rather contains the words in which the poet himself
bids the (Ethiopian) envoys depart from Jerusalem and return
home. Yet the use of the word Go^ rather than returtif makes
it particularly difficult for the reader to seize the dramatic move-
ment of the poem. Did some such line as "Return to your
place, ye envoys," originally precede, and form the parallel to,
the now isolated Hne, ^c?
Questions 3 and 4 may be answered together ; if v.^ is the
courteous refusal on the part of the Jews of help from
Ethiopia, vv.^^- are best regarded as a prediction of the over-
throw of the Assyrians. Still this interpretation is anything but
obvious, and would remain so even if 1712-14 ^gj-g ^^g opening
verses of the poem (see p. 305). If iS^^- stood after 17^^ (Marti),
the reference would suit the Ephrai mites equally well. Another
alternative (Jer.), that the people who are to perish are the people
* ATUnterstichungen, 146 ff. ; but see later, KAT^ 271 n. I.
XVIII. I 309
of the land apostrophised in v.\ has in its favour that these are
the only people yet mentioned in the poem, but against it that
the tone of vv.^'* scarcely suggests such a conclusion.
If the poem refers to an Ethiopian embassy to Jerusalem, it
was written not earlier than the foundation of the Ethiopian
dynasty by Sabako about 712 B.C. (Introd. § 71), and may, with
most probability, be assigned to the year 702 b.c.
I. Ahl'\ simply exclamatory: cp. 55^, Zee 2i<'^-<^'-), Jer 47*;
ct. I* 5^ 10*^ 17^2. — Land of the whirring of wings] or land of
winged locusts^ are the safest renderings of J^. " Merchants will
have brought home the usual travellers' tales of the wealth of
the distant country in insects, in order to maintain a high price
for the wares'brought thence and to frighten rivals away" (Du.).
But on this or any such interpretation the polite address
to the envoys (v.^) begins with an offensive apostrophe — O
insect-infested land ! Ges. interprets wings as meaning armies
(cp. 8^?); Che. in SBOT {^x\%. tr.), p. 160, with more ingenuity
than probability, combines both meanings : " the flies of Ethiopia,
with the metallic clang of their wings, are a symbol of the
swarming and warlike population of that country." Other
translations that have been proposed are (1) land of winged^ i.e.
swift, boats : * this is philologically ill-supported, and anticipates
V.2; (2) land of the shadow of both sides \ this has been supposed
to mean either {a) the land over which shadow is cast by
mountains on both sides of it, to wit, the mountains which flank
the Nile valley on the E. and the W. ; or {b) the land where
objects at noon-day sometimes cast a shadow to the N. and
sometimes to the S. This phenomenon was indeed observed
some centuries later (Strabo, ii. 5. 37), but it is highly improb-
able that it is alluded to in the present obscure phrase. The
text may be corrupt ; as it stands it seems to be unintelligible :
the interpretations cited here and others that have been offered
are either philologically unsound or, in the context, of doubtful
fitness ; see, further, phil. n. — Which is beyond the river of Cush]
cp. " from beyond the rivers of Cush they shall bring tribute,"
Zeph 3^^ ; in Zeph. a vague term for a remote region is in place :
* Ew. ; cp. (St, t!C, Ki. ; the comment of the last is, **he describes the
land as d'S33 VsSj^ on account of the number of boats in it. For when their
sails are spread, they resemble wings, and the boats move by means of them
as birds fly by means of their wings. And the sails cast a shadow (*?:«)."
310 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
not so here; the country in question is one which has sent
envoys who are now in Jerusalem. Cush is the Egyptian K's
or Ks. The Egyptian government district of Ks extended from
Elephantine at the first cataract to the fourth cataract just above
Napata.* At Napata the Ethiopian dynasty which Sabako, about
712 B.C., established over Egypt had its capital, and from Napata
any Ethiopian embassy would presumably have come. But
from Elephantine to Napata, and indeed for some distance
further south, the country is a country not of rivers, but of a
single River, the Nile. Some way south of Napata, at about
18° and 15° North respectively, the Nile is joined by important
affluents from the S.E. Though the Egyptian province of Ks
did not extend so far south, the name Ks may have covered this
remoter country, and the rivers of Cush may be the Nile and
one or both of these affluents. A land beyond these rivers
should naturally be a land more remote ; and if we should be
right in treating the Nile and its first affluent as the rivers of
Cush, the land beyond should be the district of Meroe ; in his
description of Moses' campaign southwards against the Ethiopians
Jos. {Ant. II. lo^) describes this district as "encompassed by
the Nile quite round, and the other rivers Astapus and Asta-
boras made it a very difficult thing for such as attempted to
pass over them," i.e. to Josephus, Meroe lay beyond the rivers.
But historical difficulties would beset this interpretation : it was
not until after the overthrow of the Ethiopian dynasty towards
the middle of the 7th century B.C. that the Ethiopians appear
to have moved their capital to Meroe, t and at no time after
this is there any probability of an Ethiopian embassy to Jeru-
salem. Earlier interpreters endeavoured to escape some of the
difficulties of the phrase by illegitimate translations, substituting
on this side of or along the side of for beyond', thus Jer. and
among modern commentators Hitz., see in the country intended
not Ethiopia, but Egypt. But most modern interpreters, except
Winckler as cited on p. 306, rest content with assuming that a
country can be described as lying beyond its own rivers, although
that country is a country of a single river, or at least has no
second river until its remotest parts are reached. Even if
* See Breasted, History of Egypt, pp. 136, 255, 325, and Ancient Records,
ii. 1020, 1025 ; W. Max MUller in EBi, s.v. Ethiopia,
t Breasted, History of Egypt, 560 f.
XVIII. 2 3^1
the plural """ina could mean not the rivers^ but the (great) river
(Haupt in SBOT\ lying beyond the river of Cush would still be
a strange way of describing Cush itself, for Cush is the narrow
strip of fertile soil on both sides of the Nile. A phrase so
difficult of interpretation in the context seems little more likely
to be due to a glossator (Du., al.) than to the author of the poem :
but if v.^^ is a gloss, the 2nd line of the original opening distich
of the poem perhaps survives in the now isolated line ^ (Che.,
Marti). — 2. Envoy 5\ D^^V; so 57^ (as here after n^K^), Jer 49I*
= Obi (followed by HSh^\ Pr 1317 (|| ^xfjo : cp. v.2 here) 25I8
fyrbih tON3 "fV). Possibly D''1''V is an error for D''^V (V^l), galleys
(3321), which would be a more exact parallel to vessels of papyrus
in the next line {(&, not f^). — The sea] probably here and in 19^,
Nah 3®, the sea means the Nile, though this is disputed by Wi.
So in mod. Arabic the Nile is called El-bahr^ the sea. Perhaps
the Euphrates also is once or twice called the sea in the OT :
2\\ Jer 51^^?. — And vessels] cp. ffi (see phil. n.) ; fl^ and in
vessels ; if envoys i§ rightly read in the previous line, perhaps in
vessels was the original reading here. But the parallelism of on
the sea and on the face of the waters suggests that v. 2^ was
parallel and not complementary to ^. — Vessels of papyrus] boats
that were light and, therefore, swift, suitable for the Nile, but
not for the open sea ; cp. the synonymous expression n^K nV3«,
Job 9^^ and see EBi. 4478. The word N03, papyrus^ or rush (35'',
Ex 2^, Job 8"t), does not necessarily point to Egypt, for see 35'',
but it entirely fits in with the theory that the envoys come from
the Nile valley.
2C-g. Isaiah bids the Ethiopian envoys depart; Judah
cannot accept the alliance they have come to proffer. This
interpretation * assumes great compression, not to say obscurity,
but it is preferable to the alternative that makes the words an
address of the Ethiopians to their envoys as they set out on
their mission to the Jews.f The nation^ or people^ to whom the
envoys are bidden return (or go) are described in lines d. e. f. by
a series of epithets ; of these epithets the meaning of one only
is clear and unambiguous ; but since a terrible nation is in the
context a complimentary epithet, we may assume that the others
are of like character. Probably line d. describes characteristic
* Adopted by Ew., Del., Du., Che., Marti, Whitehousc
t % Jer., Rashi, ^i., AV, RV.
I
312 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH i
and admired features of the people, e. its fame, and f. its conquer-
ing might. Tall'is an unparalleled meaning of "I'^'D^, inferred*
from meanings which would more usually be conveyed by the
words drawn^ drawn along^ as, e.g,^ a waggon (5^^), ox prolonged
(cp. Ps 36^1). Ges. infers the meaning strongs and refers to other
guesses. Hitz., as an alternative to polished^ suggests i^vhose
days are) prolonged: cp. "the long-lived Ethiopians," Herod, iii.
17, cp. 23. Ki., keeping nearer to the normal meaning, under-
stood the epithet to refer to the Jews dragged away by the
nations of the world : hence AV scattered^ RVmarg. dragged
away. Of polished appearance,^ is an unparalleled meaning of
13110, which would more commonly mean with hair plucked out
(cp. 50*), or scoured, polished {pi bronze utensils, i K 7*^). RV
smooth, embodies an interpretation given by Del., "polished
especially by depilation and, therefore, not marred by a dis-
figuring growth of hair"; but the numerous derivatives from
the root DID in Heb., Arabic, and Syriac refer to an undesirable
removal or absence of hair. If the meanings of "|6J^JDD and tDlID
given above are approximately correct, we may compare 45^* and
Herodotus' (iii. 20) description of the Ethiopians as " the tallest
and most beautiful of men." There is no reason why the
Hebrews should not have admired the burnished copper colour
of the Ethiopians, for even Jer 132^ need not be interpreted as
though the ancient Hebrew shared the modern white man's
objection to colour. — Terrihle'\ far and wide, ot from its beginning
onward, are renderings proposed for the words riKpni t?in p
that follow terrible. Possibly they are a corruption of a second
epithet meaning famous, or something similar : see phil. n. —
Mighty\ uncertain (see phil. n.), but RV that measures out, viz.
in allotting the lands which it has conquered, is not more
probable. — Down-treading^ down-trodden (cp. AV, RVmarg.)
would be also possible, if the epithets were not complimentary ;
see above. — Whose land the rivers divide'] and render fruitful
seems to be the suggestion ; but the meaning of the vb. is un-
certain : see phil. n. Ethiopia is divided by a single river, the
Nile : see above on v.^^ Omitting la?td, Marti places this line,
which the rivers divide, immediately after ^*.
3, A warning addressed not in particular to the envoys (v.2)
* (&, Koppe, Ew., Del., Di., Che., Du., Marti,
t Hitz., Che., Di., Du., Marti.
XVIII. 3, 4 313
or their countrymen, but to the world at large. Yahweh is about
to manifest His might to the nations : when the signals are given,
let all men give heed. Possibly the v. is the work of an eschato-
logical supplementer (Marti) to whom the embassy of v.^ was of
no importance, and who had no particular interest in the land
from which it came ; note that pan, frequent in later literature,
never occurs elsewhere in Isaiah: cp. 13^^ n. For the raising
of the signal^ see 5^^ 13^, Jer 51^^; for the blowing of the trumpet,
Jer 4*^ 5127. — Mountain-signal] mountain is required neither
by the parallelism nor by the rhythm, and should perhaps be
omitted : see phil. n.
4. Go away : we need no human alliance ; for Yahweh has
assured me of His purpose : He is sufficient. Such seems to be
the connection. In real life it would have been inconvenient to
leave unexpressed what most concerned the Ethiopians, viz. the
refusal of their alliance ; but the poem is not a precis of Isaiah's
interview with them ; it was written not for them, but for his
countrymen. — 4a. So 8^^. — 4b-d. I will be quiet and look forth]
the two verbs might be freely rendered untroubled I will watch.
The clause expresses not unconcerned inactivity, but observation
free from anxiety as to the issue. It is true the verb OpK^ may
be used of God's inactivity, so Ps 83^ : cp. Jer 47^^-, Is 62^ ;
but it is also used to express freedom from annoyance or care ;
see Ezk 16*2, Ru 3I8, and, especially, the uses of the Niphil in
reference to men in 7* 30^* 32^*^. The vb. D^nn, look forth, is
used of the divine observation of the world and its inhabitants
and needs ; so Ps 33^3'- 80^^, La 5^, Is 63^*. — The world may
be in turmoil, but Yahweh undisturbed keeps watch, in readiness
for action in His sure abode '9i\\\QS\ cannot be shaken — " ut Judaei
putant, in Templo ; ut nos, in coelestibis " (Jer.). Whatever the
reference, and Jerome was probably right, the term (p^D) is
significant, and is inadequately represented by dwelling-place
(RV) : it is a place which is firmly fixed, which endures and
cannot be shaken : cp. the use of the vb. in Ps 93^^-, and see
2* n. — Like the dazzling heat above the light] this line contains,
like the next, a comparison rather than, as many * have supposed,
a note of time (see phil. n.). But neither the translation nor the
point of comparison is free from ambiguity, nnv readily
expresses both the ideas of glow and of dazzle ; cp. " a glowing
♦«.^. Ges., Del.
314 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
wind," Jer 4", a " dazzling " (white) skin, Ca 510 (adj.). La 4^
(vb.). Above the lights is but one possible rendering of "1IK 'h^ ;
others are, at time of light (cp. the use of 7j; in Jer 8^^, and see
BDB 754*5) ; or, on the ground of on account of light (Di. : cp.
BDB 754^). The word IIS, lights means, once at least (Job 31^^),
specifically the sun ; yet the phrase can scarcely mean at mid-day
(ffi), for in Neh 8^ "iix is contrasted with mid-day as the light
of the earlier part of the day. If the clause is temporal, it
means when it is {sun-)light, in sunshine^ a. specification that
adds little to the idea of dazzling heat. Possibly, therefore, Du.
is right in supposing that the dazzling heat is defined as that
which seems to be above the sun, not proceeding from it, but
belonging to another sphere, and regarded by many people as the
region of the highest gods. — Lihe a cloud of night-mist^ a com-
parison from the night, as was the last from the day. The word
cloudj 2Vi elsewhere expresses clouds as the source of rain (5^), or
as high in the sky (14^^ Job 20^), or as moving swiftly across the
sky (60^). The h^ in time ((&), or heat (J^), of harvest^ is not the
atmospheric moisture condensed by the cooling of the ground,
i.e. dew proper, which forms during spring and autumn in
Palestine, but the night mist, or rain, which is an invaluable
feature of the hot season from May, and especially from August,
to October. The westerly winds bring much moisture from the
Mediterranean, and this condenses under the action of the cool
night air into something like a Scotch mist ; see Che. in EBi.
1094 f. (on the basis of Neil, Palestine Explored, 1 29-151). To
the Hebrews this moisture, which might be sufficient to drench
the hair of those out in it (Ca 5^), seemed to descend from
heaven (Gn 2728, Dt 3328) by night (Nu ii^, Jg (i^'^-^%
returning thither early in the morning (Ex i6i3^-, Hos 6*) ; what,
then, is the point of the comparison ? Do the figures enforce
the stillness, or the watchfulness, or the fostering care of
Yahweh? (i) Di. remarks — ^just as in the harvest season,
glowing heat by day and heavy dew by night, both necessary
for the ripening of the crops, continue constant over the country,
so will God remain unmoved, undisturbed, though still ripening
the plans of the Assyrians. (2) Marti sees in the glowing
motionless heat, and in the lofty clouds driven by no wind, out
of sight but pouring down the dew in harvest, altogether admir-
able figures for the unseen but all-seeing God, exalted far above
XVIII. 5, 6 315
all that is human, undisturbed by the movements of the world,
but carrying through His will. Like heat and dew-cloud,
Yahweh can remain quiet while events in Asia excite the famous,
powerful, and distant people of Ethiopia; even so should
Yahweh's people remain quiet, confiding in Him. More than
this is not told the Ethiopians, nor needs to be said to the
Jews, who should know that in quietness lies their deliverance
(74-9 28i« 3015).
5. If m31 should be rendered then he shall cut away, Yahweh
being the subject, the words of Yahweh in v.* are here continued
by the explanation of the prophet, cp. Am ^^'^. If the subject
be indefinite, then one will cut away, or then will be cut away,
w.^ and ^, like v.*, may be the words of Yahweh, though even
in this case that is not very probable. If Marti's theory, that
w.^- ^ originally followed 17^"^^, were correct, the words would
not be Yahweh's, and the indefinite construction would be
appropriate enough. Neither the indefinite subj. nor the un-
expressed subj. implying Yahweh seems altogether satisfactory,
if v.5 is the direct continuation of v.*. If, however, the connec-
tion be original, the line of thought must be somewhat as
follows : Yahweh quietly watches (v.*) the ripening vintage of
the Assyrian plans, because he has determined just before the
crop is ripe to slash the vine to pieces (v.^), i.e, (v.^) Yahweh
permits the advance of the Assyrians, but just as they expect to
gain the object of their invasion He will destroy them ; one and
all will lie unburied in the land they have invaded: cp. 1712-14
j^24-27 2636f.^ — Before the harvest^ I^Vp is here used of the
vintage; so probably 17^^ (cp. 17^®), and certainly 16^ (ct. Jer
48^^). In v.* the word appears to have its usual meaning of
^2lvs\-harvest ; in any case the harvest of v.* is not the same as
the harvest of v.'*, which is generally the harvest of any year, and
introduced merely to complete a figure. This verbal coincidence
combined with difference of sense is somewhat awkward ; on the
other hand, if as s^^-^^ became separated from 9^^-10*, so iS^^-
became separated from i7^"^\ the verbal connection may have
led an editor to attach the fragment to 18*. — Ripening grapes^
the "1D3 is a fully formed but immature and sour grape, as the
use of the term in the proverb (Jer 31^®) sufficiently shows. —
6. The invaders will fall in such numbers that carrion birds and
beasts will feed on them year in year out; cp. Ezk 39^^^-, —
3l5 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Carrion birds of the fnountains] The phrase does not recur ;
cp. Ezk 39* " on the mountains of Israel . . . shalt thou fall to
the carrion birds." ffi birds of heaven ; cp. i S 17**- ^6, Jer 788.
7. A prose appendix, probably added to the poem by a later
hand. In the age to come the people described in v.2<i-s will
bring tribute to Yahweh in Sion; cp. Ps 6830 7210 76^2^ Zeph 3I0.
— From a people] so ^ ; cp. the next clause in fflr and |^. Owing
to the obvious loss of 12 before the first dV, the text of 5^ makes
the tribute consist of the people themselves ! Cp. RV. — The
place of the name of the Yahweh] i.e. the place where Yahweh
causes His name to dwell, where He manifests Himself, where all
acceptable offerings must be brought ; Dt 1 2^- ^^
There is a remarkable difference in ffi's rendering of the
matter common to this v. and v. 2. This may be due to the
fact that v.'' was rendered by a later hand, and added to the
translation of the main body of the chapter, which may have
been translated before J^ contained v.'''. Yet it is to be observed
that v.'' contains the transliteration a-aPawO, which is a striking
characteristic of the Greek version of the entire book (Introd. § 21).
I. D'£33D Vs'js] ^s^¥ may be cstr. of a form hlf)"^, or (Stade, § 241) of the form
VsJ'V (Dt 28^2 -j.)^ which out of pause would be ^)ih^ (see G-K. 29^ ; Driver on
I S 1 5^). ^i)^ in Dt 28*^ denotes an insect, apparently of the locust kind ;
(cp. Ges-B. S.V.). Hence the translation winged locusts (?) is obvious ; yet
in the parallel expression ^Ja ms^f, winged birds, the sing, of ^12 is used. No
instance of h^h'ii = whirring, buzzing, is found ; but it is in no way venturesome
to assume the meaning, for the root ^^it—Q^^^h^i particularly in redupli-
cated derivatives, expresses the idea of a noise ; so ^J^^ ,j>>ALa expresses
the emission of noise when, e.g., iron is struck by iron, as a helmet by swords,
or the tinkling of bells ; p^^Ss Q''?sVs, |J ^ • , are cymbals, so called from
their clanging sound ; Vs^^, a whirring insect, prob. the locusi (?) ; !?y^^, the
harpoon, which whizzes through the air ; ^J«^Lg is the name of a bird (see
I>ane, and BDB, s.w.). For the root !?^x = JI? = V^», the meanings shadow^
to cast a shadow, and so forth, are, of course, very well established ; but re-
duplicated forms from this root are rarer, though one such seems to be the
NH ^'nh'i, which denotes some overshadowing object smaller than a n^ip
(Levy, iv. 195). Di., indeed, divides Vs'?S£ into Vx •?», which should mean
many shado^vs rather than twofold shadow (cp. G-K. 123^:); D'SJa then
becomes a somewhat awkward ace. instead of a gen. For the meaning
boats, Ew.' appeals to jMl^, which in the Kamus is interpreted ^j^,
XVIII. 7 AND I, 2 317
boats ; but Lane suggests that this is an error for -j*— ', umbractila : this
seems probable, and in any case the meaning boats is rare and derivative in
Arabic, and, therefore, a poor support for such a meaning in Hebrew. So
also ffir's rendering o<mX 7^$ ir\olwv wr^pvyes leaves it very doubtful whether
^:ihs had this meaning: and C, which- is very paraphrastic, is still more in-
conclusive. Che. {SBOT, p. 104) obtains winged vessels by reading d'BJD '^3
instead of '3 SjtVx.— na ^'\ni^ n3j?D] beyond the rivers of Cush : cp. Dt 30"
D'^ nnyn, beyond the sea ; p^V layD, beyond Jordan (Nu 22* and often). The
sense beyond^ region beyond^ is the only meaning in such geographical
expressions that is justified by usage ; see BDB, s,v. nay (p. 719). That
layo could also mean exactly the opposite, viz. on this side, was formerly
assumed by some scholars ; see Vitr. , Hitz. Even the neutral sense, on the
side ofy along, adopted here by Grotius {ad Jlumina Ethiopia) and Ew.
{Idngs den Stromen), cannot be admitted ; the idioms in which nay is taken
to mean side (BDB, s.v. nay 2) are different in character. To express along,
Hebrew employed a phrase with t, especially t Sy, e.g., Nu 13*; see
BDB.— na ''^r^y'\ Haupt's contention (in SBOT, p. 108 f.), that this means
the Great River of Cush, is abstractly possible, but quite improbable. The
well-established uses of the amplificative plural are of a somewhat different
character : its use here would create an awkward and unnecessary ambiguity ;
and all of Haupt's parallels are capable of satisfactory explanations as
ordinary plurals. That the great river Euphrates by itself is intended by the
nnn3 of Ps 137^ is altogether improbable, since the Euphrates is so regularly
S'nm "^yn, or simply '\r\v\ ; and again it is unlikely that in 7^* 19' 37^' onK'
(which in Ex 7^' must mean the Nile arms) means the Nile stream,
single and undivided. That triple-peaked Hermon is not only called
Hermon, but once the Hermons (Ps 42'), is natural enough and no real
parallel to the single undivided stream of either the Euphrates or the Nile
being called the rivers. — 2. ''?D3i] (5 koX ^irt<rroX(is='S3i ; this, or '^33, seems
preferable to |^. fir's unique rendering of '^3 by iir. was probably suggested
by the parallel clause : in Job 9^ (JR also fails to render ships of papyrus. —
oniD] part. Hoph. of otd with suppression of the preformative D (G-K. 52^).
The form might also come from the root.OT, )oj^ ; but this yields no more
probable sense in the context. Whether fflr (jiikvov ?) read oniD is uncertain ;
but C KTM3, ^ I » o V; U dilaceratum, may be free renderings of btid. —
nN'?n'i Kin jd] p has been commonly treated here as a conj. = nrKD, and the
whole phrase rendered from where it is and onwards, i.e. far and near ; or
from where it was and onwards, i.e. from the beginning of its history.
Doubtful: but if Kin iD = Kin iB>KD = invnD, cp. "nyD, Gn 48"; with nK^n,
cp. I S 18' nK'?m Kinn ovno ; for Kin embracing the pred. in itself (BDB
2i6a), cp. the very similar, but doubtful, Kin 'D'D, Nah 2'. Not improbably
the text is corrupt, Kin p being a corrupt dittograph of Km3D[j;], and nK^ni a
corrupt second epithet, perhaps '?'?nDi : this would restore a line of 3 accents.
— ip-ip] if the makkeph be omitted, the form (cp. G-K. 84^, /) perhaps
means might', cp. Ar. i^ with that sense. Improbable alternatives are
{nation of, i.e. using, or subjected to) measuring line {upon) measuring
3l8 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
line ; or {nation ofy i.e. given over to) line {upon) line (cp. 28^"), i.e. rites and
superstitions (Vitr. ; cp. Del.). Aq. virofiivov, Jer. exspectantem connected
ip vi^ith mp, to hope ; ct. (&. dviXiria-TOf. — inh f] possibly a parallel root to
^JpD to cleave : cp. kdj, Aram. ^i^^Q-ti. Others (cp. AV) have treated it as
parallel to tn, to plunder. It is not clear that the vi^ord was read by <&. —
3. NB'js] ii4 n. — nnn 03] the force of the gen., if it means a signal on the
mountains, is curious and not quite explained by G-K. 128^, x. Perhaps
onn (Hiph. Inf. of on) is a misplaced variant (cp. 49^ 62^°) of ncj. — 4.
^B 3V3 . . . ns dhd] before an infin. and, rarely, before a verbal noun, 3
denotes time (BDB 454^) : but it is never a temporal conjunction ; the
rendering -when there is clear heat (RVmarg.) is therefore questionable.
cnn] ffiS»U=Dva. — 5. inn] if correct, a pausal form (G-K. 29$^) of inn, Hiph.
pf. of an otherwise unknown root nn, or (cp. G-K. 672;) I'n. Pointed i?irr it
might be Hiph. of irw, which in NH means to strike off the head (of a man or
animal). For the asyndeton mn n'on, cp. G-K. 121^.
XIX.— 7%(? Oracle of Egypt
The ch. consists of {a) a poem or poetical fragments, vv.^"^
or 15. (^) a prose section, vv.^^'^^. The attempts of Lowth,
Ges., and recently Cond., to represent vv.^^'^^ as poetry, are
unsuccessful.
The poem conceives Yahweh as about to visit Egypt in
person, and to punish it by bringing about civil war, the
dominion of a * hard lord,' and the complete destruction of the
entire country by the drying up of the Nile. Vv.^^^- also speak
of a plan of Yahweh to punish Egypt, terrifying them by means
of Judah. But vv.^^'^s are in an entirely different tone : here the
expectation is that Egypt and (though this point comes out
rather allusively) Assyria also will be converted to Yahweh.
Yv.i-15. i6f. 18-25 succeed one another, but it cannot be said
that there is any real transition from the theme of vv.^^^^ to
the very different theme of vv.^^'^^ ; certainly no such transition
exists in vv.^^^- which bring us no nearer than vv.^'^^ to vv.^^^^s.
Probably the original oracle extended down to v.^* or ^^ only ;
the remainder of the chapter, like chs. 18 and 20, were
subsequently added to this * oracle' as dealing also with the
Nile valley.
The following translation contains 42 lines, distributed as follows : i
monostich, v.*" ; 3 tristichs, vv.^ 8. i4 . 15 distichs. Possibly vv.^ and ^ were
originally distichs and have been expanded by the incorporation of glosses,
viz. v.^** and in v.^* mcyo ^D3 and iN'pn.
XVIII. 3-5 ; XIX. 3^9
In w.*-" the rhythm is 3 : 3, except, if the text be sound, so far as v.'°
(two accents) and ** are concerned.
In vv.*'*' ^^*" distichs 3 : 3 scarcely occur ; v.**** ** might certainly be so
read, and v.* if it ended with vnic; but scarcely v.*** or "^ The dominant
rhythm is 4 : 4 ; but conspicuous exceptions to this are due to the lines of
two accents in vv.**^ "* ; moreover, in vv.'<'* **• **• *•• "** ^ the lines balance one
another very ill. In v.^^** mK3x might be omitted.
Parallelism more or less complete marks most of the distichs. Absence
of parallelism and conspicuous rhythmical irregularity coincide in vv.^ *** ^.
^ Behold Yahweh is riding upon a swift cloud,
And he will come to Egypl^
And the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence,
And the heart of Egypt will melt within him.
* " And I will spur on Egypt against Egypt, and they shall
fight.
Every man against his brother, and every man against
his neighbour,
City against city, and kingdom against kingdom.
' And the spirit of Egypt within him shall be emptied out,
And his plan will I confound ;
And they will go to inquire of the idols and the
mutterers.
Of the ghosts and of the familiar spirits;
* And I will deliver (?) the Egyptians into the hand of a
hard lord.
And a mighty king shall have dominion over them " :
Is the oracle of the Lord Yahweh of Hosts.
fi And water shall be dried up from the sea.
And the river shall be parched up and dry;
® And the river-branches shall stink (?), having dwindled (?),
And the (Nile-)arms of Egypt shall be parched up.
Reeds and rushes moulder,
^ * And all the sedge-grass * on the brink (?) of the Nile
' shall shrivel away (?).'
And all that is sown by the Nile shall dry up,
It is driven away and is no more.
* And the fishermen shall mourn and lament,
All they that cast hook in the Nile,
And they that spread nets on the water have languished.
320 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
8- 9 And they that work flax are ashamed,
'The (women) that comb' and the (men) that weave
' have grown pale.'
^^ And those of her who * do textile work ' shall continue
crushed,
All who earn wages (?) shall be vexed in soul.
11 Utterly foolish are the princes of So'an,
Pharaoh's wisest plan-makers are (makers of) a witless
plan !
How can ye say to Pharaoh,
" A son of the wise am I, a son of ancient kings " ?
12 Where, then, are thy wise men that they may tell thee,
And make known (to thee) what Yahweh of Hosts
hath planned against Egypt?
13 Befooled are the princes of §o*an, deluded the princes of
Memphis,
And the chiefs of her tribes have led Egypt astray.
1* Yahweh hath mingled within * them ' the spirit of distortion,
And they have led Egypt astray in all her works,
As a drunkard goeth astray in his vomit.
15 And there shall be no work for Egypt,
Which head or tail, palm-branch or reed, can perform.
It has been questioned whether this poem is a unity : many
have suspected that vv.*-i® are from one poem, vv.i"*- n-i^ from
another ; Marti holds both vv.^-i^ and ii"i* to be later additions
to 1"*. Exegesis (see below on ^'i® ad tnit.) and rhythmical
differences (see above) give some justification for the suspicion.
In vv.i"^ the writer appears to have certain definite historical
circumstances in view : he is doubtless predicting, yet he appears
to live at a time when there had already ceased to be any
effective central government in Egypt, but when (yet see Dr.
LOT 21 <) some soldier or monarch had already made a name
for himself, and seemed likely to make Egypt subject to him.
Unfortunately such circumstances, though they existed in the
time of Isaiah, were recurrent in the history of Egypt ; and until
it is possible to fix the date of the prophecy on independent
grounds, the identification of the "hard lord" of v.* must
remain a matter of guesswork.
XIX. T-is 321
Many guesses have been made ; it is not even agreed that the hard lord is
a foreigner, though this would seem to be the intention of the poet. On the
assumption that the poem is the work of Isaiah, interpreters have identified
"the hard lord" with the Ethiopian Piankhi (Stade, De Is. Vat. Aeth.,
1873 : withdrawn, A TTheol. 226), or Tirhakah (Com.), or one of the Assyrian
kings (^i., Ibn Ezr.), whether Sargon (Hitz., Driver in LOT* 215, ten-
tatively), or Sennacherib (W. R. Smith, Prophet^^ 333). Many have
identified the hard lord with Psammetichos i. (663-609 B.C.), who established
his rule over the (contending) nomes, or kingdoms, by the help of foreign
mercenaries; see Herod, ii. 147-154: Diod. Sic. i. 66 ; and, for the history
of the period in the light of most recent evidence, Breasted, Hist, of Egypt ^
c. xxvi. This view was taken, according to Ges., by Grotius '* and most of
the best interpreters since" ; by himself too, but with an attempt, which later
knowledge has shown to be impossible, to throw back the rise of Psammetichos
to the lifetime of Isaiah ; by Del. also, who, however, considers the poem a
detailed prophecy of Isaiah and not, as Eichhorn had already argued, the work
of a contemporary of Psammetichos. This view has been recently revived by
Steuernagel {Theol. Studien u. Kritiken, 1909, pp. 8-12), who argues that
among the mercenaries employed by Psammetichos were Jews supplied by
Manasseh, for which he was condemned in Dt 17^' ; that when the poet says
Yahweh will fight against Egypt, he means these Jewish mercenaries will be
employed against Egypt ; and that some of these mercenaries were the
founders of the Jewish community at Elephantine the existence of which has
been brought to light by recent discoveries ; see Sayce and Cowley, Aramaic
Papyri discovered at Assuan, 1906 ; Sachau, Drei Aramdische Papyrusur-
kunden aus Elephantine^ 1907- Descending later, we may find a suitable
*' hard lord " in Cambyses, at whose invasion the Jewish temple at Elephantine
was spared, though the Egyptian temples were destroyed (Sachau's Papyrus ^
i. 13 f.) ; "it is most natural to explain 19* as referring to the mad fury of
Cambyses,*' and "at any rate probable that 19"' was written sometime
between " 525 ** (final defeat of Psamtik ill. by Cambyses) and 485 (reconquest
of Egypt by Xerxes) " : so Cheyne, Introd. 117. Still later Artaxerxes Ochus,
by his cruel treatment of Egypt in 343 B.C., at the end of a period of internal
strife (see on v. 2), would fit the r61e : so Du., Marti. Finally, Kennett
(pp. 53 f.) finds in Antiochus Epiphanes (D'jb t;*, Dn 8®) the "hard lord" of
this poem.
If vv.^^"^^ are of a piece with vv.^-*, we must seek a period of
origin for both when (i) there was a Pharaoh, and (2) $o'an
(Tanis) and Memphis were of importance : (2) determines nothing,
for So an and Memphis were important at any period that could
be considered for this poem (see onv.^^): (i) should probably
exclude the period of Persian (525-404, 343-332 b.c.) and Greek
(332-31 B.C.) dominion,* but scarcely perhaps the period im-
mediately preceding Psammetichos i. (so Alt, Israel u. Aegypten^
• Yet see Kennett, p. 54 n. i.
VOL. I. — 21
322 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
p. 90), or the similar period of decentralisation before the
establishment of the Ethiopian dynasty (712 B.C.).
It is difficult, as the divergence of views cited above must
suffice to indicate, to give the poem any secure place in Isaiah's
literary and prophetic career. As an example of attempts so to
place it, we may cite W. R. Smith {Frophets, 333) : " While Isaiah
does not cease to concentrate his chief attention on Israel . . .
the largeness of the historical issues involved in the downfall of
the supreme world-power carries the prophetic vision far beyond
the narrow limits of Judah . . . and so when Babylon had fallen
(23^3) and Sennacherib at length began his destroying march
upon the western provinces, Isaiah followed his progress with
absorbing interest. First, he announces the speedy discomfiture
of the Arab tribes (21^^^-). . . . And next . . . the stroke shall
fall on the proud city of Tyre (ch. 23). . . . And still the career
of the destroyer has not reached its end, ' Behold Yahweh . . .
cometh unto Egypt ' " (ch. 1 9). Yet it is questionable whether this
assumed period does real justice to v.^ : Smith evades the point
by making the advent of Sennacherib dissolve the government of
Pharaoh and set free the intestine jealousies of the Egyptian
nomes (p. 335) ; but this is contrary to the order of events pre-
dicted in the poem.
In the style and ideas there is nothing that positively supports
an Isaianic origin, for the occurrence of some words and phrases
used by Isaiah and collected by Cheyne {Introd. 112) cannot do so.
On the other hand, there are usages and ideas which favour, if they
do not absolutely require, a post-exilic rather than a pre-exilic date.
The frequent and inelegant repetition of Egypt (5 times in w.^"*, 4
times in vv.^2-15^ may, indeed, tell more against Isaianic authorship
than in favour of any particular date, for we cannot safely assume
that there were no inelegant writers before the Exile. Ew.
{Propheten^ p. 480), while recognising peculiarities, was content
to attribute its "duller colour" and "deadened fire," of which he
was conscious, to the advanced age at which this *' the last writing
of Isaiah " was written ; cp. Skinner, p. 145. Many of the peculi-
arities of vocabulary or style collected by Cheyne (pp. 1 1 1 f.) are
entirely inconclusive as to date, and among these 11VD (37^^ n.)
should be included. Others are textually doubtful (see below
on IT'iTxn, v.^ ; nny, ^), but others have late Hebrew or Aramaic
affinities ; see notes below on nj^:, v.^ ; fep, v.^ ; IJ'BJ ^Da«, vA
XIX. 1-4 323
Very significant is the use of nv) in v.^ ; see n. there ; and the
structure of v.^^ (n.) is noticeable. Possible, but not absolutely
certain, implications of v.^ (see note on And come) and v.^^ would
also indicate a late date.
If more were known of the circumstances and outlook of the
Jews at the time of Artaxerxes Ochus, we might be able with
some probability to assign the poem to that period.
1-4. Civil War and the "hard lord." — Yahweh is about
to descend in judgment on Egypt : He will give over the country
to civil war (v. 2) and the domination of a cruel and mighty king
(v.*). So both civil war and foreign invasion figure in the
prophecy of Ephraim's fall (97-10 526-29),
I. At Yahweh's advent in Egypt, gods and people will
tremble. — Yahweh is riding] He will make a swift descent,
riding through heaven (cp. Dt 332^) on a c/oud-chsinot : cp.
Ps i8iof.(9f.) 6834(33) for similar conceptions; the idea of Yah-
weh's cloud-chariot is elaborated in Ezk i. 10. ii22f.. — ^///
come] the vb. is used of Yahweh's advent to judgment (e.g.
Ps 96I8). For Yahweh's advent in person to the land which
He is about to punish, cp. Jer 49^ and ct. Is 9*^(8)^ whether
such a representation any more than that in Am 92^- is necessarily
inconsistent with the idea of Omnipresence (Jer 232*, Ps 139),
and, even if so, whether it is necessarily inconsistent with
Isaiah's conceptions (cp. 6*), may be doubted. By reason of
Yahweh's presence (72 63I®), the idols {2^ n.) will tremble (6* 72)
with fear, and the heart of Egypt — the people personified (i^ n.)
— will melt (13^), i.e. their courage will vanish (cp. Dt 20^,
2 S 1710). — 2-4. Yahweh speaks: in (&. the first person begins
in v.^ f^ is preferable. — I will spur on] 910 phil. n. — 2b. Cp. 3^.
City against city and kingdom against kingdom] the two clauses
are almost synonymous : the " kingdoms " are the nomes (ffi)
of Egypt. The form of the prophecy in this v. would be best
accounted for if it was written in a period when there was no
effective central government and no strong Pharaoh (v.^^) able
to control the monarchs. Such a period was that which
preceded the establishment of the Ethiopian Dynasty, r. 712 B.C.
(Breasted, History of Egypt^ 547 f.) : another such followed the
fall of the same dynasty {ib. 565 ff.). So, too, the period
between 404, when the Egyptians recovered their independence
of the Persians, and 342 b.c. was " filled with internal discord.
"l
324 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Three dynasties (from Tanis, Mendes, and Sebennytus) and at
least nine kings . . . are mentioned " (W. Max Miiller in EBi.
1247). — 3. Timorous in v.^, fratricidally courageous, or at least
pugnacious, in v.^, the Egyptians are now pictured as witless
and perplexed. The various pictures are unrelated : there is no
psychological development from v. to v. — The spirit within him
shall be emptied out'] Egypt is personified, as in v.^. The phrase
means the Egyptians will lose their wits ; cp. the parallel line.
The use of nn is significant : nil is here an essential and
permanent part of the personality. Originally nil denoted an
invading spirit temporarily taking possession of a man, and was
thus distinguished from the t^'SJ, or personal soul, which could
not be separated from a man without leaving him dead or
unconscious. This distinction is largely maintained in pre-
exilic literature, but became increasingly obscured later :
^^ ruach is not used of the breath-soul in man in any pre-exilic
document," nor is it " used with psychical predicates in any
pre-exilic passage, though from the Exile onwards this usage
becomes frequent, whilst in Psalms and Proverbs the term is
practically employed as a synonym of nephesh and * heart' to
denote the inner life in general. ... By the time of Ezekiel,
we find that ruach has come to denote the normal breath-soul,
as the principle of life in man (Ezk 37^- ^•^) . . . from this
point onwards we find ruach following a line of development
similar to that of nephesh, with which it is used in parallelism
{e.g. Is 26^)."* — 3c. d. In their perplexity the Egyptians will
turn for counsel to their idols and to the spirits of the dead;
but they will get no help : their idols are as frightened (v.^) as
themselves. It seems unnecessary to regard the consultation of
the gods as a proof of the senselessness of the Egyptians, and
consequently to see in this trait an indication of a dogmatic
and unsympathetic monotheism (Du.). There is nothing
specifically Egyptian in the forms of divination mentioned :
for the first term idols^ see 2*, for the ghosts and the familiar
spirits, 8^^ ; the second term D^DN occurs here only ; the Arabic
i?^ means "to emit a moaning or creaking sound"; mutterers is
but a third term for the dead, who give their responses with a
thin and low voice (8^^ 29^). — 4. Even if the writer had some
* H. W. Robinson in Mansfield College Essays, 270-273.
XIX. 2-5 325
definite individual in his mind whom he expected to subdue
Egypt, the adjectives by which he describes him tell us little,
unless, which is unlikely, he intends some native Egyptian who
had gained a reputation for severity. Any conqueror would
ipso facto be mighty : any foreign ruler as the imposer of hard, />.
foreign, service would from the point of view of the conquered,
especially in expectation, be a hard lord. For various guesses
at identification, see p. 321. The phraseology in some respects
resembles that of the curse of Eshmun'azar on the individuals
who should tamper with his tomb : " May the holy gods deliver
them up (di:d^) to a noble prince ("inx [nlsteo n«), who shall
rule over them" {CIS i. 3^ = Cooke, NSIy p. 30).
2. 'n3D3Di] (!R KoX iir^-fepd-fiaovTai. — np33i] G-K. 6^dd. — ySnK] 13" n. — 4.
'm3Di] unless this is an error for 'maoi (Ezk 30^^), the root nao (in OT Gn
8^, Ps 63^^), ;^l£0) jMf Assyr. sikiru, meaning to dam up water, shut up the
mouth or ears and the like, developed also the meaning to deliver up : cp.
the Hebrew development of the similar root nJD (BDB, s.v. ). — rwp d'^k] pi. of
majesty (G-K. I24«) with sing. adj. (G-K. 124^). (!G,SH render by a pi. —
jnKn] (&. om.
5-10. The Nile is to dry up. — Between vv.^-^ and "-i^
which prophesy political disaster, comes this prediction that the
Nile and the Nile-streams will run dry; that all vegetation
dependent on them will wither away ; and that all classes of
people directly or indirectly dependent on the Nile or the
vegetation promoted by it will be distressed. The sequence
within these verses is natural and good, but as between vv.^-^^
and ^"^ it is as poor as within vv.^-* (see above) ; for in spite of
the fact (see Ges.) that changes of Mohammedan dynasties have
occasionally coincided with a low Nile (far more than which is
intended here), the drying up of the Nile is no natural sequence
to the accession of a hard lord : either might well be conceived
as a judgment from Yahweh, but they go ill together : the com-
bination in Ezk 3oi<'-i2 of the slaughter of the Egyptians by
Nebuchadnezzar's troops and the drying up of the Nile is less
unnatural, for no picture is there suggested of Nebuchadnezzar
becoming the ruler of the unpeopled desert: ct. still further
Ezk 32^2-15^ where the waters flow on in a country desolated
and depopulated by the sword.
5. The sea] the Nile; iS^ n.— 5b is = Job 14"^; and line
326 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
a. is but a variant of Job 14^1*. — The river] the main stream of
the Nile : ct. 7^0 n. — 6. River-branches\ the artificial conduits
made from the Nile for purposes of irrigation ; so nnna is used of
the canals of Babylon, Ps 137^, and "inj of a particular canal,
Ezk i^' ^ Ezr 831. — 7%^ {Nile-)arms\ the branches into which
the Nile divides in the Delta may be specially intended, though
D''"iK^ is not limited to these : 7^^ n. If -i5<^ is a loan-word
from Egyptian {^iotr^ '/<?>, water-course)^ and not an old Semitic
word (see Ges-B. s,v.\ it may at first have meant specifically
streams of Egypt ; but any such limitation of meaning was lost
later (see Dn 12^- '^), and then the addition of Egypt {o.'^. 7I8 3725)
was not superfluous; cp. river ("»{<"') of Egypt in Am 8^ 9^ —
probably late passages. — 6C-7. In four lines of which 7a cer-
tainly, and 7c possibly, are corrupt, the rotting and withering
of the vegetation are described. — "Jdi, Very uncertain ; see phil. n.
Meadows (RV) is a very conjectural rendering of miy, which
should mean bare places. — All that is sown] yiTD f may mean
either all land that is sown^ or all seed that is sown. — 8. In the
dry river-bed no fish can live. This would deeply affect the
whole of the poorer classes, who largely fed on the abundant fish
supply of the Nile: Nu 11^ (n.). — Shall mourn and lament] cp.
32s ; to separate the vbs. (RV) destroys the 3 ; 3 rhythm. — 9. The
distress of the flax-workers. Much flax was grown in Egypt,
and the growth and preparation of it formed an important
industry. Failure of water meant failure of the crop. Two
processes in the manufacture of flax are here particularly
referred to: (i) the combing of the stalks whereby the poorer
fibres, which were used for tow, were separated from the better
fibres, which were used for (2) weaving into material. Cp.
Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians^ iii. 138 f. — They that work in flax
. . . the women that comb] so omitting a single letter. |^ appar-
ently means they that work in combed flax, i.e. those that work
the superior fibres of the plant into material ; the adjective
distinguishes them from another class who may have made the
tow into wicks ; but it is questionable whether this distinction is
probable here : hence, and on rhythmical grounds, the emended
text in this and the next clause is preferable, yet perhaps not
quite correct, for the distribution of the work between women
and men cannot be satisfactorily explained. — The men that weave
have grown pale] the vb. (nin) || to " are ashamed," as in 29^21.
XIX. 5-IO 327
For the conjectural reading ITin, J^ has '•"ilPl, which is conjectured
to have the same meaning as iin, white stuffs linen or cotton,
Est i^ 8^^ : J^ might then be rendered weavers of white stuff. —
10. The distress of another set, or two sets, of people is here
described : unfortunately the text or meaning of the terms is
uncertain. A generalising conclusion would not be inap-
propriate; but whether the terms mean the foundations (cp.
Ps 11^) and workers for hire respectively, and therefore either
{a) the entire population — the leading classes on whom the state
rests, and the rank and file who work for hire, or {p) the entire
proletariat, the two terms being regarded as synonymous, is very
doubtful. Possibly \P continues the description of the flax-
workers begun in v.^. An allusion to the " makers of dams "
(RVmarg.) would be belated. See, further, phil. n. —
S. inrji] MT Niph.f; Kal, 41", Jer 5i«>t.— 6. imjiKm] an error for
in'3ini (G-K. 53/) ratlier than a unique instance of a denominative formed from
an elative (Ew. Heb. Gr. 126^) ; but corruption of the text may go deeper ;
for the meaning stinky which occurs nowhere else in OT, we may, indeed,
compare !^\i to stink 'y but the versions do not recognise the meaning, the
parallel does not secure it, and ** stinking " would be more in place after the
rotting of the reeds (v.«^).— i'?'?n] doubtful : note (<z) for i'?'?t f, 38", Job 28*
have 1*?! ; see G-K. 670^, cc ; {b) ^^% all prefix 1, and dR seems to have
read the word as a second noun ; (f) neither ^^i, vb., nor Vn, adj., is elsewhere
used of water. The prevalence of the 3 : 3 rhythm in vv.*"^*' suggests that i^Si,
or whatever it stands for, went with v.^, not with v.***. — I'^op, Is 33' f ; cp.
^^SidD, to be mouldy. — ^7. nK' '£3 '?y "xvc Sy nny] the absence of a vb., the
variations of the versions, the unsuitability of nny, which means if anything
bare places (not meadows)^ the dissimilarity of the neighbouring lines, all
point to textual corruption, tik' h]} and niK' "t Vy look like variants, 'b is
difficult ; the mouth of the Nile is scarcely a place likely to be chosen in
illustration of fruitfulness, and the suggestion that 'S here means banks (Du.),
a meaning which would be appropriate, rests on the precarious argument
that as lip means one bank (e.g. Gn 41'), mouth means both banks : the
analogy of such expressions as the mouth of a well, a sack, and so forth, shows
that, naturally enough, mouth stood for openings, not for what surrounded or
enclosed an opening. (& has Kal rh Ax* "^^ 'x\<aphv irav rb /ci/^Xy tov Trora/toO.
For nny, & has P^Q^, pond-weed, and ^, apparently, rn^i. Marti (followed
in the translation above) emends tentatively niK' 'fl ^y inx ^3 rnyi : for ray,
see Jl i" (?). — yiiD] is best rendered seed (cp. ^3ND from '?3k), if rpi is said
of yiiD ; otherwise sown p/ace, lajid sown is preferable. — ijj'ki »]nj] <& dv€/x6<p-
dopov, reading ^^^ and omitting uj'ni, which might be overlooked before uxi.
The line, over-short even in |^, is perhaps corrupt.— 8. tik'3 '3''?B'd] 5^1 n.
— iVSdn] if taken, as commonly, with what precedes, spoils the parallelism;
if with v.* it is otiose ; possibly its presence here is not unconnected with
328 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
corruption in vv.*''' ^®. — 9. np'nB' D'nc's] D'ntvs is probably masc. ; it is plural
ofni!?S (Gezer Calendar Inscription, PEF QuSt., 1909, pp. 2, 5), not, of course,
of the nomen unitatis nrn5'£3 (Di.). If D'nB'£3 is masc, nip'nB' certainly does not
go with it. In any case there are other considerations (see above) against
taking nip'ntJ' with '•'** ; either mpne' is itself a nomen agentis^ or, more
probably, an original mpiB' part. pi. fem. has been wrongly written plene. —
mn] see comm. above ; if a vb. were not more probable here than a noun, we
might restore nin, treating the ' as dittograph of the following i. €r renders
T^jj/ p6<r<rov. — 10. nTiriB'] there is nothing in what immediately precedes for a 3rd
fem. sing. suff. to refer to ; both the word and the suffix cause difficulty ; the
comparison with Ps 1 1' was made by Ki. and Ibn Ezra. The renderings of the
versions are, (& ol ipya^dfievoi avrd ; 5 omits ; ^ nhd "nv n'3 nnx, the place
where they weave textures ; 3J irrigua eius. tZT, and probably ffi too, connect
the word with a root nnr, to weave , which is used in Aram., and whence the
Heb. noun "nv, warp^ is derived ; punctuate in this case n'nhis', or, since the
masc. DN31D follows, read rcn'r, which, if the meaning were not entirely
unsuitable, might also be rendered those who drink it. — ir^ 'Jfy] if the phrase
had anything to do with hire (commonly n;)"^), it should rather mean those
who actually obtain wages ^ than those who work for them (cp. Pr 1 1^^), though
it is true the former meaning would be less suitable here ; the latter meaning
is expressed by Tre'. (&.% render "yyo by strong drink (IPS'). CH, Rashi, ICi. ,
Ibn Ezra, AV, RVmarg. render nst?, assumed to be an orthographic variation
of n3D, by dams, or sluices ; cp. the use of the vb. in Gn 8^. This meaning is
probably intended by MT ; but it is altogether improbable ; for (a) it would
return to the fishermen, who have already been fully dealt with in v.* ; [b) it
was suggested to the earlier interpreters by an impossible view of rsa 'Da**,
which they took to mean pools of soul{s) (i.e. fsh !), in apposition to nDB'.
'DJN is rather an adj., occurring here only, meaning troubled, depressed; cp.
with the harder guttural 'efsi nojy, Jb 30^' ; both forms occur with this
sense in the Rabbinic writings — Hebrew or Aramaic ; see Levy, NUB iii.
618, i. 21, and Chald. Worterbuch, i. 8, ii. 222, though the form with N is
commonly, or always, merely a variant of the form with y. Cp. , further, Assyr.
ag&mu, to be vexed; /»^'» to loathe ; ^>Q^»^, to be depressed.
II-15. The futility of the wise men. — The wise men
of Egypt, princes of the old and famous cities of Tanis and
Memphis (v.^^), are proved foolish by the event : they gave
advice and formed plans, which Yahweh frustrates (v.^), but they
never discerned Yahweh's plan (v.^^^^ which is carried out.
Consequently deceived by Yahweh (v.^**), they delude them-
selves and their country (v.^^^-), and Egypt achieves nothing.
II. So^ari] RV Zoan. Heb. §o'an and Gk. Tavt? are both
transliterations of Egyptian S'nt (Coptic Dja(a)ne), the name of
the capital of the 14th nome of Lower Egypt.* The city was
* W. Max Miiller in EBi., s.v. Zoan.
I
XIX. 9-12 329
situated in the Delta, on one of the Eastern arms of the Nile
near its mouth, and was thus one of the nearest of the great
Egyptian cities to Palestine. It was an important city, as
excavations have shown, as early as the 12 th (c. 2000-1788 b.c. ;
Breasted), and probably as early as the 6th (c. 2625-2475)
dynasty. The 21st dynasty {c. 1090-945) sprang from So an ;
so also, according to Manetho, did the 23rd (c. 745-718 B.C.);
but this is doubtful (Breasted, Hist, of Egypt^ 535). Egyptian
records show that So an was a residence of Egyptian kings as
early as Ramses 11. (13th cent), and that it was, probably, the
Egyptian residence of the kings of the Ethiopian dynasty
{c. 712-666). Stelae of Ramses 11., Osorkon 11. (c, 874-853),
and Tirhakah {c. 691-666) have been found there; and the
temple of Amon at So*an made a considerable contribution to
Nitocris in 654 b.c. ; see Breasted, Ancient Records (references
in v. p. 58). The Greek geographers still speak of So an as
a "great city" (Strabo, xvii. i, 20); it survives to-day as a small
fishing hamlet, San. Its importance attracted the attention not
only of Isaiah (30*) in the 8th, but also of Ezek (30I*) in the 6th
cent. Other OT references are Nu 13^2 (n.), Ps 7812- 48, — j j^ jg
parallel in sense to v.^^*, but the text or construction is un-
certain : see phil. n. — lie. d. The poet dramatically asks
these Egyptian counsellors how, being really devoid of wit and
wisdom, they have the effrontery to remind their king that they
are, each one of them, by right of descent men of wisdom and
rank. Professions, including those of the priests and wise men,
were largely hereditary among the Egyptians. — 12. " The
structure of v.^^ jg a favourite one since Jeremiah's time (cp.
Jer 228, Dt 3287f., Is 47i2f.) » ; che. Introd. p. 112. The Pharaoh
is now addressed : if he has any wise counsellors they could tell
him what Yahweh is about to do to Egypt ; but no such coun-
sellors are to be found in Egypt, or among the priests of the
Egyptian gods. From the point of view of late Jewish thought
the fear of Yahweh is the beginning of all wisdom : those who
fear Him, alone know His plans. Cp. 47^^'. — Memphis\ Heb.
RV Noph (see phil. n.). Memphis occupied a site at the
southern end of the Delta, about 10 m. S. of Cairo. Till the
18th dynasty {c. 1 580-1 350 B.C.) Memphis was the most im-
portant city of Egypt ; at that time it yielded first place to
Thebes, but maintained undisputed the claim to be the second
330 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
city of the Empire. Stormed by the Ethiopians in the 8th cent.,
by the Assyrians in the 7th, by Cambyses in the 6th, it does not
appear to have suffered any considerable depopulation, and,
outliving Thebes, continued to be populous under the Ptolemies
and second only to Alexandria.* The other references to
Memphis in the OT are Hos 9^, Jer 2^^ 44I 4614- 1^, Ezk 3oi3-i6(0;
in Ezk 30^3 (if not also in Jer 46^^) Memphis seems to be re-
garded by the Hebrew writer as the most important city in
Egypt, and, as here, it is mentioned in close connection with
So'an (Ezk 30^*). — 13b. TAe chiefs of her tribes] cp. Jg 20^, i S
14^*, Zee 10* for the use of njs, lit. a corner-stone. The phrase
is best taken as subj. of the sentence and synonymous with
princes in the preceding line : see, further, phil. n. The tribes of
the Egyptians may be the inhabitants of the several nomes.
There is no good ground for giving the word the sense of castes,
and then making the whole phrase mean the chief i.e. the priestly,
caste. — 14. Yahweh is the cause of the folly that precedes the
fall of Egypt ; He allows a spirit to possess them that distorts
their judgment. — Within them] so : the pronoun refers to the
princes or advisers mentioned in the last v. ; these with judg-
ment warped, so that they see nothing right, lead the whole
nation to its doom. J^ reads within her; if this is right the
suffix refers to Egypt as a whole : possessed by the spirit of
distortion, the people are led on by their leaders to their doom.
— The spirit of distortion] cp. " the spirit of deep sleep," 29^*^,
" the spirit of falsehood" in the prophets of Yahweh (i K 2 2^3),
"the evil spirit" that terrified Saul (i S 16^*), all alike performing
Yahweh's purpose. The distortion (D^yiy) which the spirit was
to achieve was distortion of mind or judgment : cp. the distorted
or perverted mind (niV3 3?) which produces the opposite of
wisdom, Pr 1 2^. In all that they undertake, the Egyptians have
no more power to go straight than a drunken man; for the
figure, cp. 28^, Job \2^\ — 15. Expresses awkwardly much the
same idea : neither high nor low (9^^ n.) will achieve anything.
lib. myaj nsy nynij 'j^y 'Ddh] the line seems at least one word too long;
is r\)i]3 intrusive, and mj^a an error for r\v^^f The construction of |^, in
spite of such partial analogies as n'?sn '3N (Ps 109* ; cp. Dr. § 109 (2)), or the
usage of n:ij;, is abnormal ; we may treat nyns 'sy' 'DDn as a casus pendens and
n^y as resumptive, but if we render the wisest of Pharcu)Ks counsellors — a
* Based on W. M. Muller in EBi. s.v. Neph.
XIX. II-I7 33^
witless council are they, we place on nxy, counsel, ox plan, a sense which it bears
nowhere else; again, if we render the wisest, etc. — witless is {their) counsel
((& and virtually RV), we assume a most improbable ellipse of the pronoun
(nxy for Dnj«y) which cannot be defended by reference to Ps 9', for that is
a corrupt passage. For the superlative force of 'Jty 'Dan, cp. G-K. 133A. —
'3K . . . iTDKn] the pi. is distributed : cp. Jer z". — 12. \]n;i]\ &VL MT ; prefer-
able is ijn'i (d&F) ; cp. 47^^ — 13. iynn] many MSS and the versions lynm.
— n'tsar rus] (& Kard ^vXdj. nas was probably intended to be read as a pi,
(^T) ; if sing. (MT) and subj. of lynn, it has a collective force (G-K. 145(5, c).
For the order vb., obj., subj., see Dr. § 208 (4): it emphasises the subj.
rather unexpectedly here, where the subj. seems to l)c merely parallel to the
unemphasised subjects of v."*. — 14. nn naipa ^0D] in 5^2 and elsewhere lOD
is used of liquids, and means to mix. Ges., al., suggest that it has here lost
its full force, and, like the Gk. Kepdwvfu in Apoc 14^", for example, means
merely to prepare : cp. QT nn pn'j'a not. In 29'" the phrase used of nn is
103, in 1^ + Vy, but see n. there ; Du. proposes HDJ here. For naipa, canpa
should perhaps be read : cp. C(!&, and see comm. — D^yiy] see 21' 24^ nn., and
^V>^,s.v. my, i. ffiS> connect with v'^'''^J'>u^%i (BDB, my, ii. ; cp. Dr. on
I S 20^), to err from the way. — inryo] read n'^fa.5 ; note the pi. in ffiC^,
and the 3rd fern, suffix in moatr, v.'^^ — 15, ^"-nx^ m.T kS] for the use of n'rr,
cp. 7'. ^ may meany^r, and denote the source — no work shall be performed
by Egypt.
16 f. Judah a terror to Egypt. — Egypt will tremble at
the impending judgment of Yahweh, and will shudder at the mere
mention of the land of Judah. — 16. In that day] so vv.^^- ^^- ^i-
23. 24^ — Egypt] personified and construed with the masc. sing, as in
vv.^' ^ : ct. v.^^ (fern, sing.), w.^i^- (masc. pi.). — Ska/l be like women]
Nah 3^3 ; Ges. compares Xerxes' speech at the battle of Salamis
ot /A€V ai/8p€s ycyomcrt /u,ot ywatKC? (Herod, viii. 88). — And shall
tremble] Tin of women, 32^^ ; of a city, lo^^. — And be in dread]
unlike Israel (12^), secure in Yahweh's help. The vb. ins
repeated in v.^'^ is a favourite with late writers. The noun occurs
in Is 2^^. — Because of the swinging of the hand of Yahweh] cp. ii^^
and phil. n. on 10^2^ also 30^2^ The meaning may be that the
Jews (cp. v.i'^), by the help of Yahweh, will overwhelm, or spoil,
the Egyptians ; cp. " battles of swinging," 30^2, and for the idea
Ex 14^^, Zee 2i^(^), 2 Ch 14^3^-; or the writer may have had in
mind some other miraculous intervention of Yahweh, cp. ii^^
— 17. And the land of Judah will become a terror (see phil. n.)
to Egypt, either because Yahweh's conquering hosts will pour
down from Judah on Egypt (see last n.), or because, dreading
Yahweh, Egypt will dread his residence also (Di., Marti).
Moreover, whoever mentions it, viz. the land of Judah, to him, i.e.
332 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
•^
Egypt, will he in dread. — 17b. The cast of sentence monotonously
repeats v.^^^ — The plan of Yahweh'] verbally a connecting link
with vv.i-i^, see v.^^ . the writer may have in mind what Ps 2^
calls Yahweh's decree^ according to which Israel was to treat with
severity all nations which failed to serve them. Other terrors
planned by Yahweh for those who do not submit to Israel are
mentioned with specific reference to Egypt in Zee 14^2-19,
16. 1'JD Nirt na'K] more effective than f)'a\ The use of the expressed subj. with
the part, is normal (Dr. § 135 (6)) at all periods : cp. e.g. Ex 5^ (JE). — 17. Kan*?]
(Lir. \ey., ffir (pb^rjTpov, W t<^ni}? ; cp. <SU. The ending K is an Aramaising
equivalent of n (G-K. 8o>4) : the root is an ; cp. •\)3&3 ij?i3i Mn\ Ps lo;^^ ;
if this means (BEWB) fo reel (as from festival excess), such a derivative meaning
may well be late ; in any case the sense required for the noun here is only
paralleled within the OT by the sense of the vb. in the late Psalm passage. —
nns' r'7N nnx tdi' nts'K Sd] awkward, and really rather pointless however
construed. For the translation above, cp. T3in with ace. of the thing and
^K of the pers. in Gn 40^*. Less probable is the rendering every one (i.e.
every Egyptian) to whom one mentions it is in dread', but whenever one
mentions it to him, he (Egypt) is in dread, would give excellent sense, if
I S 2}^ proved that ib'K ^d could mean whenever. Improbable is the rendering
whosoever makes mention of it, to him he turneth in dread (Vk nns, as Jer 36^^).
18-25. — -Jewish Colonies in Egypt. The Conversion of Egypt.
The Religious Triple Alliance of Egypt ^ Assyria, and Israel.
The unity of the section has been questioned, v.^^ or ^^^ or
23-25 having been by various writers suspected of being interpola-
tions. The somewhat disjointed character of the section, marked
off by many repetitions of In that day, gives some ground for such
suspicions. But, as the commentary that follows must be left to
show, it is by no means difficult to interpret the several parts as
coherent.
Neither style nor ideas admit the probability that vv.18-25
were written by Isaiah : note on the one hand the constant re-
petition oi Egypt and in that day, and the absence of anything
characteristic of Isaiah : on the other, the prominence given to
the ritual element in religion, vv.^^- ^i- 23,
The style does not point conclusively to any definite date,
though it is just such as a late writer familiar with the Scriptures
might have written.
The determination of date rests in the first place on the
question whether the entire section is prophecy, or whether it is
XIX. i6, 17, 18-25 333
in part history clothed as prophecy. In the former case it seems
easier to account for the prophecy of an altar (or rather in this
case altars), and a massebah or massebahs to be erected in Egypt
(v.i^) before the publication of Deuteronomy (ch. 12 ; 16^) than
after; though the idea is not easily associated with pre-exilic
prophecy. If the reference is to a particular altar and massebah
already existing, no known facts explain the reference to the
?nassebah^ and the only known fact which might explain the
allusion to the altar is the Temple at Leontopolis erected about
160 B.C.* It is altogether improbable that the exiled high priest
Onias had no sympathisers in Judah : and it is possible that one
of these, dealing not with an idea, but accepting the fact of a
temple in Egypt, saw in its erection the realisation of what had
long ago been pre-determined by Yahweh as a means of bringing
Egypt to Himself. What those, who had driven Onias to Egypt,
had intended for evil, God had intended for good, to bring much
people to Himself (cp. Gn 5020).
18. The "City of Righteousness" in Egypt. — There
will be five cities in Egypt speaking Hebrew and acknowledging
Yahweh : one of these will be distinguished from the rest,
possibly as being the legitimate seat of Jewish worship in Egypt :
in this case the reference would be to Leontopolis, where from
about 160 B.C.-73 A.D. there stood a temple built by the Jewish
refugee Onias iv., after the model of the Temple at Jerusalem
(Jos. Ant. xiii. 3, War. i. i^, vii. lo^-^).
The specific reference to Leontopolis, or the Temple of
Onias, has been recognised alike by many who see in this v. a
prophecy written in the 8th cent. B.C., and by many who regard
it as a piece of history clothed in the form of prophecy, and
forming the prelude to actual prophecy in vv.^o-ss^ just as on a
larger scale history clothed as prophecy forms the prelude to
actual prophecy in Dn 7. Others question the specific
reference (see more fully below).
In another respect affecting the general sense of the v.
interpreters have differed : some see here a prophecy that a
few Egyptian cities, as the firstfruits of the whole land (vv.^^f.),
will become converted to the Jewish religion, and in proof of
their conversion speak Hebrew (so Del.) : others, with greater
* An historical reference to both the erection and destruction of this
temple given in the form of prophecy is found in Orac. Sibyl, v. 488-510.
334 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
probability, understand the five cities to be Jewish colonies in
Egypt.
Five cities] the writer may well mean five definite cities,
though these need not necessarily be Heliopolis, Leontopolis,
Migdol, Daphnae, Memphis (Hitz.). Others treat ^w as a round
number : so that the meaning is among the 18,000 to 30,000
cities or townships of Egypt, as they were computed at different
times (Herod, ii. 177; Diod. i. 31), a few cities will speak
Hebrew. The least hazardous parallels to such a use of five
are i S 17*^ 21^, for there as here the use of any number is
unnecessary, unless Jive were meant strictly. Many of the
instances cited by Ges. ad loc. and Konig in DB iii. 564* are
obviously not to the point ; for instance, Benjamin's fivefold
gift (Gn 43^* 45^^)> five fleeing before a hundred (Lv 26®, cp.
I Co 14^^), five sparrows for two farthings (Lk 12^). — Will be
speaking the language of Canaan] i.e. Hebrew ; the five cities
will be Hebrew-speaking ; Hebrew, not Egyptian, Greek (or
? Aramaic) will be in these cities the regular language of inter-
course. Coupled as this clause is with the next, and swear
allegiance (cp. 45^3, 2 Ch 15^^) to Yahweh of hosts (© to the
name of Yahweh\ the language (lit. lip ; cp. Gn ii^- ^- '^' ^, Ps 81^)
of Canaan can scarcely mean anything but Hebrew; yet why
this is not expressed by speaking Jewish, as in 36" (cp. 36^2), is
not clear, and is, indeed, strange, for in Neh 132* Ashdodite and
Jewish {i.e. Hebrew), though both languages of Canaan, are
sharply distinguished. — One of them shall be called] one of these
five cities will be distinguished from the rest by its peculiar
character or function : the idiom to be called (i> "1DX3, 4^ n. 32^
62'*, cp. i26 n.), expresses an actual quality possessed, or function
exercised, not a mere name to express which a different idiom
would be used (Gn io25, Ex i^^ jgs^ Nu ii26, Ru i*, 2 S 42);
and nns, one, can scarcely here mean each ; for in cases where one
seems to have such a meaning {e.g. Nu 7^, 2 K 152*^; BDB 25/*)
the distributive idea is suggested by repetition, or by a distri-
butive preposition, or by the context. Unfortunately what this
city was to be called is uncertain ; there are various readings, and
the interpretation of the variants is ambiguous. But the context^
in the light of what has been already said, allows us to affirm :
I. that the name must be of favourable import, 2. that it must
not be merely the actual name of some city, insignificant in the
m
XIX. i8 335
context and serving merely to identify the city intended : the
writer's purpose is not to disclose the actual name of one of the
five cities, leaving the remaining four unnamed, but to indicate
some essential peculiarity of this one city ; 3. the name must
not by implication speak unfavourably of the other four, for they,
as well as it, are obviously cities of Yahweh's approval. Many
theories which have been suggested may be immediately dis-
missed as violating one or other of these conditions. The
readings with the most probable translation attached in each case
are as follows :
{a) noXis ao-cScK, (& (variant ao-cS 17X10V, K) = pnvn l^y (i2«),
City of righteousness. This reading, since it contains a trans-
literation, certainly goes back to a Hebrew text.
(J?) Dinn Ty, City of Destruction : so most Heb. MSS, Syr.
%CD5oi, C (see under (^r)), and possibly Aq. and Theod. who trans-
literate apes j but this might also = Dinn (cp. Jg S^^ ^).
(c) Dinn Ty, City of the Sun : so some Heb. MSS, Symm.
(ttoAis) yjXioVf Jer. civitas satis. ST appears to combine {b) and {c) :
it renders ainDi) m^nyn K'OC^ n^3 xnip, City of the house (i.e.
temple) of the sun which is about to be destroyed.
The oldest attestation, that of (5, say c. 150 b.c., is in favour
of {a) ; but the readings {J?) and {c) both go back at least to the
I St or 2nd cent. a.d. If any of these readings be the original
one, the choice lies between {a) and {c\ and must really fall on
(a) — City of Righteousness-, the name recalls i^^, and means
that one of these cities will be the Egyptian Jerusalem. But
Jerusalem to the writer is not, as in Isaiah's ideal, the city of
just or right government, it is the city of just or correct worship,
the place where sacrifices of righteousness (Ps 51^^), i.e. legitimate
sacrifice, can be offered. Thus interpreted the name satisfies all
the conditions of the context — it is of favourable import, it is
not an actual proper name, it does not by implication reflect on
the other cities : only one of them could be the Egyptian
Jerusalem, the city of correct worship, all of them might have
been cities of righteousness in any wider sense of that term.
The reading xs^r^rx vy can only mean, as tJT correctly understood it, city of
destruction^ i.e. doomed to destruction (Ki., Rashi, and most moderns). To
avoid this meaning, impossible in the context, Seeker suggested the artificial
interpretation city of the destruction (of heathen altars, etc. ) : so Del. , Orelli,
and Che. (in /V, but not later). The claims of the reading Dinn to originality
336 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
may therefore be rejected decisively on two grounds : (a) the meaning is
impossible in the context ; {d) reasons for the origin of the reading are
obvious : it is certain (Jos. Anf. xiii. 3) that v.^' and the neighbouring verses*
were early understood to refer to the temple at Leontopolis, and that this
temple provoked the displeasure of the Palestinian Jews ; some Palestinian
scribe substituted for a reading agreeable to the context a reading that
expressed his feelings with regard to the schismatic temple. The reading of
a few MSS mnn Ty, «/y devoted (to destruction), if it had any serious claims
to consideration, would be dismissed on the same grounds. The theory (Du.,
Marti) that onn means lion^ because (_/«M> and ^/«y&, derived from (J*'j^f
to be voracious, are used as epithets of a lion, would be philologically most
hazardous ; and it is out of harmony with the context, for Dnnn Ty then
becomes a mere proper name — Leontopolis.
The reading onnn I'y has been generally interpreted City of the Sufty
mn occurring once certainly in OT (Job 9^, not Jg 14^^) as a synonym of tyor.
It is assumed by some that mnn Ty is here an equivalent, synonymous in
meaning with the Greek ''SXiov irbXis ((K's regular rendering of the Ileb. pK),
of the Egyptian city On. The meaning then is — one of those cities is On,
Heliopolis. This is probably the correct interpretation of the reading ; but
it does not satisfy the requirements of the context, though quite good enough
for a scribe aware that the passage was supposed to refer to the temple of
Onias in Leontopolis, which was situated in the nome of Heliopolis. But
why, if the original writer merely meant this, did he not say On (as in Gn
4i«. 50 4520^ Ezk 30''), or at least cDtyn ry (cp. ? Jer 43'", ^ not (5)?
If, however, we suppose that mnn Ty means, indeed, city of the stoi, but was
not used here as a mere translation of the Egyptian name of the nome, what
quality of the city was it intended to express ? Certainly not that it was to
be a city distinguished by the worship of the sun ! yet this would be the
obvious force of the phrase (cp. nin' Ty, 60^^). Unless some more suitable
meaning can be discovered than hitherto, this interpretation at least, if not the
reading itself, must be dismissed.
But mn has been otherwise explained as meaning {i) potsherd{s) — Jerome,
as an alternative meaning to sun : Din is NH orthography for fcnn ; (2)
deliverance, so Ges. on the strength of the Arabic ^jw^^*-, to rescue. But
neither meaning gives anything unique for a single city as against the five.
Jerome, indeed, takes it as forming a proper name — Ostracine : but this on
other grounds is to be dismissed.
Whether onn or mn is the earlier reading it is difficult to say. For though
tnr\ as a noun occurs nowhere else, yet the vb. is very common ; and it is
easier to account for the substitution of this word of sinister meaning than for
onn with its neutral meaning ; mn, too, is very rare, and unless similarity of
form to v^n suggested the choice of the rare word, we should naturally
expect a scribe, who was substituting a mere place name for a complimentary
epithet, to select the common term wov.
* In section l, Jos. makes Onias cite part of v.^^ and add, "and many
other such things did he (Isaiah) prophesy relating to that place."
XIX. 19-22 337
It would be extremely hazardous to seek indirect support for the priority
of D^^ by assuming, on the ground of the reading atreS ijXlov in dSi, that ffi's
Hebrew text read non (Che., Burkitt, cited by Ottley, p. 201 ; £Bi. 2018).
The reading of k is conflate ; cp. the interpretation of AaedcK by diKaioavvrj
ijXlov (Lag. Onom. iSy**). It would be extremely strange if a mere acci-
dental addition of iK to an original cureS should have given the exact trans-
literation of pnsf.t. Finally, lonn rywill not stand as the original reading, for
such a quality would attach to all five cities equally.
Against the originality of onnn is the fact that neither an Egyptian scribe
would have had any compelling reason to substitute ^"yi^^ nor a Palestinian to
substitute zr\r\T\. If a word of neutral significance had stood here originally,
it would have been likely to maintain its place. The textual facts are best,
if not completely, accounted for by assuming that the chronological order of
the readings is "p^viry, onnn, onnn.
19-22. An altar and a ma^^ebah will be erected to
Yahweh in Egypt (v.^^), reminding Him that He has wor-
shippers there ; when, therefore, His Jewish worshippers (scarcely
His Egyptian worshippers : Skinner) are oppressed and cry to
Him, He will send and deliver them (v. 20) ; He will, thereafter,
make Himself known to the Egyptians, and they, coming to know
Him, will also serve Him with sacrifice and offering, and pay their
vows to Him (v.^i). Thenceforward, being Yahweh's worshippers
(and people, v.^*), Yahweh will treat them as He had treated
Israel in the past, smiting them, indeed, to discipline them, but
also, and as often as they turn to Him, hearing their prayer and
healing them.
Since it is only after the erection of the altar to Yahweh
(v.^*) that the Egyptians come to know Yahweh (v.^i), the writer
cannot mean that the Egyptians themselves erected this altar :
he thinks of aliens resident in Egypt, viz. Jews (cp. v.^^).
Attempts have been made to avoid this conclusion : Del. virtually
inserts all twice over in v. 21, so as to create an antithesis that
does not exist in the text : v.^^*, according to Del., asserts that
Yahweh reveals Himself first to a few cities in Egypt, and then
(v.2i) « extends knowledge of Himself to the whole of Egypt, and
throughout all Egypt there arises the knowledge of God." Cond.
rearranges the verses in this order : ^^^* ^' ^- ^^"^o. 23f.^ which removes
one hysteron proteron only to create another, for it makes the
Egyptians offer sacrifices to Yahweh before they erect the
altar.
19. An altar in the midst of the land . . . and a massebah at
its border] Ges. suggests that the terms are to be taken collect-
VOL. I. — 22
338 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
ively and the parallelism (cp. ii^^ 18^) interpreted thus: There
will be altars and massebahs from the centre of the land to its cir-
cumference. This would have more probability if there were more
parallelism and poetical style in the section, and if the one city (of
righteousness) in v.^^ did not make a reference to a single altar in
that city natural. Che. (Introd. to6) overrides the reference to a
definite altar even more boldly and with much less probability ;
what is meant is, he claims, "neither more nor less than this,
that the regular worship of Yahweh should be set up in Egypt.
Synagogues were, of course, just as much a * sign ' and a ' witness '
(v.2^) as literal altars, and the spiritual sacrifices ... of prayer
and obedience were infinitely more acceptable than mere animal
sacrifices (n3T and nmo are mentioned to preserve the illusion of
Isaianic authorship; cp. i^^- ^^)." It is safer to conclude that
the altar is a real and definite altar ; and so with the massebah.
In this case the altar and massebah to which the writer refers
were remote from one another, one being in the centre, the other
at the extremity of the country ; and it is not necessary to assume
that the massebah was one connected with an altar or with
worship, and consequently an object such as the Deuteronomic
Law condemned (Dt 1622, cp. 1 K 1423, 2 K 1710 18* 23I*). We
cannot safely argue that even the Deuteronomic school and H
(Lv 26^) would have condemned commemorative* massebahs^ or
steles, such as are mentioned in Gn 31^^ 3520, 2 S 18^^, and such
as still exist bearing Phoenician inscriptions, for example the
** marble obelisk, about 5 ft. high, terminating in a pyramidal or
gabled top," found at Kition and dedicated to the memory of a
certain Eshmun-adoni ; see Cooke, NSI^ p. 60 = CIS i. 44 (with
illustration in Table VIII.). As according to Gn 31*^ a massebah
marked the boundary between the Aramaeans and Hebrews in
Gilead, so according to this passage a massebah is to mark, or
rather already marks, the boundary of Egypt. May we surmise
that at some place, such as Daphnae, on the North-eastern
boundary of Egypt, one of the five cities of v.^^, perhaps, and
connected by the Jews of the time with the Exodus, there stood
•Even "commemorative monuments" were condemned by Abd el-
Wahhab, the founder of the Wahhabis (Hogarth, Penetration of Arabia^ 73) ;
and similar extremes are familiar expressions of the reforming spirit. But
idealists, such as this writer was, need not share all the extreme views of
reformers of religious practice.
XIX. 19, 2o 339
an inscribed obelisk celebrating Yahweh's deeds ? If this were
prophecy, it would be easy to understand a prediction that Egypt,
like Canaan, should have its own place of sacrifice (cp. Mai i^^) ;
but a prediction that there should be a massebah at the boundary
would be rather insignificant, if not positively meaningless. On
the other hand, if such a massebah as we have surmised actually
existed, it might still find mention along with the altar. The
altar, if not ideal and the subject of prophecy, but really existing
at the time when these words were written, is most readily
understood of the altar at Leontopolis (cp. v.^^ n.). Leontopolis
occupied the site of Tell-el-Yehudiyyeh ; this place has been
excavated and the remains of the Jewish temple laid bare.*
This place lies north of Memphis, but at the southern end of the
Delta, and therefore quite strictly in the midst of the land. It is
certain that the priests of Leontopolis in the ist cent. a.d.
applied this passage to their temple. Onias, according to
Josephus {Ant. xiii. 3I), in making his petition, which was
granted, to build a temple at Leontopolis, wrote to Ptolemy
and Cleopatra as follows : " I pray you grant me leave to build a
temple to Almighty God, after the pattern of that in Jerusalem.
... on behalf both of myself and my wife and children, that those
Jews which dwell in Egypt may have a place whither they may
come and meet together in mutual harmony with one another, for
the prophet Isaiah prophesied, ' There shall be an altar in Egypt
to the Lord God.' " We cannot, of course, assume that Josephus
had the correspondence of Onias and Ptolemy before him • he
is rather in this form giving the regular apology of the priesthood
of Leontopolis for their temple. An allusion to the altar and
temple of the Jewish colony at Elephantine, built before 525 b.c.
and destroyed in 411 B.C., has been suspected by Steuernagel
{ThSK^ 1909, pp. 8-12); but (i) Elephantine lay not "in the
midst of the land," but on the southern frontier, as Ezekiel was
well aware (Ezk 30^ 291*^); (2) we have no evidence, and it is
improbable, that Elephantine made any such claim to a distinctive
position among Jewish cities in Egypt as is made in w.^^-^oa. —
20. The existence of the altar in the centre and the massebah^ or
inscribed obelisk, on the frontier of Egypt, will serve Yahweh as
reminders; for this kind of n^&<, unlike that in 7^^, cp Ex 13*,
Gn ()^^^- ; thus the rainbow is a sign, nlK, which reminds Yahweh
* W. M. Flinders Petrie, Hyksos and Israelite Cities (1906), pp. 19-27.
340 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
of His oath not to destroy the earth by a flood ; so when He sees
the altar and massebah in Egypt, He is reminded of His people
there ; and therefore ^o^ when they cry to Him because of oppressors
(Jg 2^^), that He may send them a deliverer as of old (Jg 3'- ^^),
He will intervene, lit. contend, or conduct His case (cp. especially
Ps 74^^^')» ^^^ deliver them. Others render (but see phil. n.),
when they cry to Him . . . He sends them a deliverer, and He (the
deliverer) contends for them and delivers them, or when they cry, etc..
He sends them a deliverer and a champion, and he delivers them ;
and some who render thus think that reference to actual histor-
ical events still continues ; *but if so, the identity of the deliverer
is obscurer far than that of the altar. More probably the
transition to prediction which has certainly taken place in v.^^
has already taken place in v.^o. — 21. By delivering His people
in Egypt — whether because in delivering them He delivers the
Egyptians also is not clear — Yahweh makes Himself known to
the Egyptians (cp. Ezk 382^) ; but not merely with the result, on
which Ezekiel lays so much stress, that they realise that Yahweh
is Yahweh, i.e. realise all His might and power ; this writer looks
forward to a conversion of Egypt to the Jewish religion, which
could be summed up as a "knowledge of Yahweh." The
Egyptians will know Yahweh (cp. i^ ii^ n.); but the know-
ledge, or religion, of Yahweh, for this writer (ct. 1 1^ \^)^ manifests
itself in ritual (cp. v.^^; ct. i^^^-), and therefore the converted
Egyptians will give proof of their conversion by offering sacri-
fice to Yahweh ; they will participate in the service of the altar
(in Leontopolis ?). — 22. Become Yahweh's people (cp.^^), Egypt
will experience that goodness of Yahweh's which shows itself
in fatherly chastisement, and " leads to repentance " and healing.
— Smiting and heali?tg\ cp. Hos 6^ As often as they return from
the evil ways to which, like Israel, Yahweh's first people, they
will be prone, He will let Himself be entreated of them ; they will
pray to be healed, and He will heal them.
23-25. The triple alliance of Egypt, Assyria, Israel.
These three powers, blessed of Yahweh, will be a source of
blessing in the whole world. The conversion of Egypt, which
must precede this, has been dwelt on in v.^i^- ; that of Assyria
is merely, but certainly, implied. The co-operation of Assyria
and Egypt implies, too, a general state of peace which enters
into many a prophetic picture of the ideal future; what is
XIX. 21-25 341
remarkable here, and almost unparalleled, is the co-ordination
of Egypt and Assyria with Israel ; they are not to be subjects of
Israel, and in virtue of so being, objects of Yahweh's regard ; they
are to be as directly related to Yahweh as Israel itself. This
unlimited universalism, this entire elimination of racial pre-
rogative to the favour of Yahweh, was too catholic a thought to
be immediately and generally accepted ; (Sr misses the point of
the equal co-ordination of the three nations by rendering in v.*^
" Egypt shall serve Assyria," and reduces v.*^ to a mere reference
to the Jews at home and in the Diaspora, rendering, Blessed is my
people which is in Egypt^ and which is in Assyria and the landj
my inheritance, Israel ^ cp. S and even U. ST likewise paraphrases
away the great idea as follows : " Blessed is my people whom I
brought out of Egypt, whom because they sinned before me
I exiled to Assyria; but when they repented they were called
my people and my inheritance, Israel."
23. There will be easy communication by means of a highway
(11^^ 40^) which Assyrians and Egyptians will use equally for
friendly passage to one another's country. — Assyria'] if the verses
were written before the last decade of the 7th cent., this refers to
the Assyrian Empire; if later, to one of the Empires which
succeeded to the command of the Euphrates valley — the Persian
or the Seleucid; see 11^^ lo^* n. — The Egyptians shall serve
with the Assyrians'] grammatically the sentence is ambiguous :
it might equally well, and even more obviously, mean the
Egyptians shall serve the Assyrians ; but a subjection of Egypt to
Assyria is incompatible with the entire outlook of the verses, with
the co-ordinalion of Egypt and Assyria (Egypt being mentioned
first) in the next v., and the repetition of exactly the same phrase
(ct. ffi) for the passage of Assyria to Egypt and Egypt to
Assyria. The service in which Egypt and Assyria are to co-
operate is (ritual) service to Yahweh ; cp., of Egypt, v.21. — 24. A
blessing in the midst of the earth 25 which Yahweh of Hosts
hath blessed, saying] so, following ffi in reading n313 for 13"i3,.
which cannot be satisfactorily explained (see phil. n.). For
nD13, a blessing, cf. Gn 1 2^. — My people] Egypt, in Ex 3'' and
often elsewhere of Israel. — The work of my hands] the term used
of Assyria was in itself of the widest importance once the belief
in Yahweh as Creator had developed ; note, however, the use of
the term in reference to Israel in 6o2i 5^7 — j/y inheritance\ of
342 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Israel as often : so 47^, where it stands in parallelism with my
people^ also meaning Israel.
20. n'ni] the subj. is the entire sense of v.^* (cp. Kon. iii. 323^), i.e. the
existence in Egypt of nmo and nnsD ; 3rd m. sing, as in Gn i^^ etc. 17^^
Less probable is the view that the following sentence '1JI ipy:^' '3 is the
subj. — ny*?! niN*?] f&. eis arjfieiov els rbv alQva. — nW'i] that he may send: this
is the normal force of simple waw with the impf. (Dr. § 62) ; and again,
the normal apodosis to a sentence beginning with '3 and an impf. begins
with waw consec. and the pf. (3"3i here) ; the waw with the impf. is in
such cases very rare (Dr. § 136/3, cp. § 125). Moreover, the subj. of 311 and
D*?":*.!) is quite naturally Yahweh on the view here taken, less naturally
y'syiD on the other. MT 371 means 3i to be taken as a part. : so ^TS'IT
{(&. ambiguous) ; but after ytriD this is very otiose ; on the other hand,
in the light of Ps 74^ mi, then he will intervene ^ is effective enough. —
22. inyji . . . i3B'i] for the hypothetical force of the double waw conv. with
pf,, see Dr. § 149. For the Niph. of ^ny^-S of those whose supplication
is permitted and granted, cp. Gn 25^^, Ezr 8^. — 21. nn:Di nar n3jn] (K koX
iroti^ffovffiv dvalas. But 121; is rather a technical term meaning to discharge a
(religious) service or duty : cp. Ex 13' ; and v.^ below. With the ace. of
the material used in the service, cp. Ex 10^. — 25. I3n3 nt^N] ®r '^v e{)\6yri<r€v ,
whence we may read Ptpi5 -irK, the suffix referring to pN. Retaining MT,
some explain wherewith (or because) Yahweh hath blessed him, i.e. Israel, or
distributively, each one of the three — all awkward and improbable.
XX. — Misraim and Cush {Egypt and Ethiopia) are to be taken
captive by Assyria.
For three years, including the year of the capture of Ashdod
by the Assyrians, Isaiah by command of Yahweh went about
" naked " {i.e. half-clad) and barefoot, like a captive, as a portent
that Misraim and Cush, on whom the Palestinian states at
this time relied for help against Assyria, would, so far from
giving help, themselves be taken captive by Assyria.
Sargon's inscriptions (see below) enable us to date the
capture of Ashdod; it took place in 711 b.c. These inscrip-
tions also state directly that Judah was drawn into the revolt,
and into the appeal to Pir'u, king of Musur, for help against
Assyria. Isaiah's conduct was directed, though unsuccessfully,
towards keeping Hezekiah and Judah out of an anti-Assyrian
alliance with the neighbouring states.
The date is particularly significant if, as has commonly been
assumed, Misraim and Cush are here, as usually in the OT,
Egypt and Ethiopia (iS^ n.) respectively. For the siege of
XIX. 20-25 ; XX. 343
Ashdod falls a year, or perhaps as much as three years, after
Sabako, in establishing the Ethiopian dynasty in Egypt, had
re-established a strong central government in the Nile valley.
Isaiah, in this case, is affirming that the new government in
Egypt, though it may be stronger, will nevertheless bring no
strength to the Palestinian states against Assyria. His expecta-
tion that Assyria would take captive and carry into exile the
people of Egypt and Ethiopia was not fulfilled ; it was a full
generation after the capture of Ashdod before an Assyrian army
even entered Egypt. But it is obvious that Isaiah was right in
expecting that the Palestinian states would receive no effective
aid from outside ; it is not said whether the appeal to Musur for
help met with any response ; but it is directly stated that the
king of Meluhha, identified * by most scholars (not Winckler)
with Ethiopia, delivered over the leader of the Ashdodites, who
had fled to his kingdom for refuge, to the Assyrians.
But the identification of the Misraim Cush of Is 20 and
the Musur and Melubba of the Assyrian inscriptions, relating
the revolt of Ashdod, with Egypt and Ethiopia, formerly
accepted by himself,! so far as Musur = Egypt is concerned,
has been most recently denied by Winckler, who now X regards
all three terms, Musur (Misraim), Melubha, Cush, as districts of
Arabia. Alt {Israel u. Aegypten^ 68 fF.) adopts an intermediate
position, holding that Pir'u, king of Musur, to whom the Ash-
dodites and their Jewish and other allies appealed for help, was
an Arabian ruler, but the king of Meluhba who delivered up
Yamani to Assyria was Sabako the king of Ethiopia (and
Egypt).
It will be convenient to gather here the details of the affair of Ashdod
given in Sargon's inscriptions (ed. Winckler, 1889) — Annals, 215-228 ;
Great inscriptions {Prunkinschrift), 90-112 {KB ii. 65 f.), and a Clay Prism
(ed. Winckler, 186-189). In the Annals (1. 208) the date is given as the
nth year of Sargon, i.e. 711 B.C.; in the Clay Prism (1. i) as the 9th year.
The latter date may be due to a different mode of reckoning, or more prob-
ably it is the date of the earliest treasonable proceedings in Ashdod, while
* See, particularly, E. Meyer, Die Israeliten u. ihre Nachbarstdmme
(1906), where the identification Meluhha = Ethiopia, is re-argued at length
against Winckler.
t ATUntersttchungen (1892), 143 f.
X KAT^ 70 ff. (where references will be found to his earlier arguments) ;
Die jUngsten Kampfer wider den Panbabyloni sinus (1907), 29 ff.
344 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH ^^j
711 is the date of the fall of the city {A'A T ^70 fi.). Note the three years'
duration of Isaiah's portent. The course of events was as follows : Azuri,
king of Ashdod, determined to withhold his tribute to Assyria, and invited
the kings of his region to join him in his anti-Assyrian policy. Sargon
punished this conduct by deposing Azuri and making Azuri's brother
A^imiti king in his place. The Ashdodites refused to accept the Assyrian
nominee, and set up against him one, Yamani by name, who had no right by
descent to the throne, and who was, perhaps {J^A T 370 n. ), an adventurer
from Cyprus (Yamna) or Arabia (Yemen). Yamani fortified Ashdod, and (at
his instigation) the Ashdodites, in common with other Assyrian vassal-states
"situated on the sea" (a-5i-bu-ut tam-tim), viz. the Philistine cities, Judah,
Edom, Moab, brought presents to and sought, whether successfully or not is
not stated, alliance with Pir'u, king of Musur (Pharaoh, king of Egypt, or
yis, king of a district in Arabia?). '* Quick as lightning " Sargon('s army)
marched from beyond Tigris on Ashdod. At the first news of his approach
Yamani fled a-na i-te-e mdt mu-us-ri ia pa-at mdt me-luh-ha, i.e. according
to different interpretations, to the boundary (or, in the direction) of Musur,
which is on the side of (ox, belongs to the territory of) Meluh^a. Sargon's
army captured and spoiled Ashdod, Gimti, and Ashdodimmu, and Sargon
made Ashdod the seat of an Assyrian governor. The king of Melu^ba,
whose capital was very remote from Assyria, and whose fathers had not sent
messengers or paid tribute to Assyria, alarmed by Sargon's exploits, sent
Yamani bound to Assyria.
The chapter is probably in the main derived from an early
biography of the prophet — not from the autobiography from
which chs. 6-8 are drawn ; for in v.^ as well as in v.^ Isaiah (the
son of Amos, v.^ as in the titles i^ 2^ 13^) is referred to in the
3rd person. In form the ch. consists of two divine oracles,
v.2^ and vv.^-^, separated from one another in time by three
years, and a brief introduction, w.^* ^^, defining the occasion of
the oracles. The awkwardness and ambiguity of w.^'^ (see
notes below) may be due to subsequent amplification of the
extract from the biography, possibly by the insertion of v.^, or
to abbreviation (cp. ch. 7). Both introduction and oracles
seem to be in prose (Che., Du., Cond., Box). The attempt
to represent the oracles as poetical in structure (Lowth, Skinner)
is not successful.
I. In the year\ 711 B.C. : see above. — That the Tartan)^ 2 K
S^^'f. In Assyr. turtdnu^ tartdnu, is the name of the ofificer,
or officers — for as early as Sargon's time there seem to have
been two — who ranked in the Assyrian army next after the king ;
see Johns in EBi. s.v. Tartan ; E. Klauber, Assyrisches Beam-
tentum (1910), pp. 60-63. — Came to Ashdod^ mod. Esdud,
XX. I, 2 345
about 33 miles almost due E. of Jerusalem and 2 or 3 miles
from the coast. — WAen Sargortj king of Assyria] from 722-705
B.C. — Sent him, and he fought against (7^n.) Ashdod, and took
ii\ all this fell within a single year. The Hebrew narrative
means that the Tartan, and not Sargon in person, conducted
the operations against Ashdod. Sargon in his inscription says,
"I marched on Ashdod ... I besieged, I conquered (it)"
(Annals, 224 f.); but this seems to be merely a case of a king
recording the events of his reign as his own personal exploits.
— 2. At that time Yahweh spake] or Yahweh had spoken, are
equally legitimate renderings (Dr. § 7. 16); neither expresses
well what appears to be meant, viz., that three years before the
capture of Ashdod, Yahweh bade Isaiah go barefoot. If we
date the oracle of v. 2, directing Isaiah to go barefoot, in the
year of the capture of Ashdod, then in v.*, Yahweh said to me,
means really Yahweh said to me three years later. The v. is an
awkward parenthesis, perhaps an insertion (Marti) ; but if so, an
insertion based on a fuller narrative and not merely elicited from
this passage, for v.^ does not suggest the curious reference to the
prophet's sackcloth. — By the hand of Isaiah] ffi to (Trpos) Isaiah.
Later writers, particularly P and Ch., are specially fond of the
phrase, Yahweh spake by the hand of such and such a prophet :
see, e.g.. Hag i^*^ Lv 10", 2 Ch lo^^; and for some twenty
instances in P, see Carpenter and Harford, The Hexateuch, i.
219, no. 180. Earlier examples of the usage are, e.g., i K 12^^
17!^ (cp. Hos 12^1, I S 2815- 1^). Its occurrence here is extra-
ordinary, for the communication concerns the prophet alone, and
is not to be passed on to some one else. — Saying, Go and untie
the sackcloth from about thy loins] except in a few passages where
it means a sack (of grain, etc.), pjy always denotes an article of
dress worn in mourning, or as a token of distress. Consequently,
" to untie some one's sackcloth " is a figurative expression mean-
ing to cause, or give to, any one joy (Ps 30^^). In the present
passage pC^ certainly seems to require, and has commonly
received, another interpretation ; it is said to be a distinctive
but regular dress of the prophet, and is compared with the
" hairy garment " of the prophets, who are slightingly referred to
in Zee 13*, or the camel's-hair raiment of John the Baptist, or
the sheepskin, or the like, which, it is precariously argued, was
Elijah's official dress; cp. 2 K i^ and ffi's /xrjXoiTTj for mnx
346 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
in I K 19^3- ^'j 2 K i^- i2f.. — Half-clad\ wearing the inner garment
only instead of the two which constituted the normal attire ; so
Mic i^ and, perhaps, Ezk iS'^-^^, Is 58'''. The Hebrew words
Diy, DT^y no doubt commonly meant absolutely naked (Gn
^7. lof.) . but, like yv/xkds, ftudus^ they had also the meaning of
half-clad ; even in this condition Isaiah would have exposed him-
self during these years to jeers and contempt (cp. 2 S 6i*-20).
It is only incidentally from the following oracle that we learn
the duration of Isaiah's conduct ; yet the last half of v.^ would
stand far more naturally in v.^ ; and it is not improbable that
the original biography ran, ^^ And he did so, going half-clad and
barefoot ^^ for three years as a sign and a portent (8^^) against
Misraim and Cush. — 3, 4. The meaning of Isaiah's conduct :
And Yahweh said, As my servant (cp. Am 3'^) Isaiah has gone
half-clad and barefoot . , . so the king of Assyria will drive away
the captives of Misraim and the exiles of Cush, young and old,
half-clad and barefoot. This explanation of Isaiah's conduct is
only given three years after it had begun ; what had happened
in the interval ? Had Isaiah given no explanation to questions
which his conduct must almost certainly have invoked? Did
he himself attach no significance to conduct which he had
practised at the express direction of God (v. 2) ? We may sup-
pose that at first he explained it differently, making it perhaps
significant of the exile that awaited Ashdod and Judah if they
trusted in Misraim and Cush ; and that the first point of the
second oracle is that not only will these countries give no help
to the Palestinian states, but will themselves become the cap-
tives of Assyria. — With buttocks laid bare] cp. 2 S 10^. The
clause, which re-enforces half clad and barefoot as a description
of the captives, may be an addition to the text. — The genitalia
of Misraim] so the clause must be translated; it is probably a
note giving a more seemly expression which was to be sub-
stituted (so (&) for buttocks in the text. RV, to the shame of
Egypt, places on nny an unknown and improbable meaning,
and produces a very trite conclusion. — For the custom of strip-
ping captives, see 2 Ch 28^^ (cp. Is 47*, 2 S 10*) : Egyptian and
Assyrian reliefs illustrate it : see, e.g. Breasted, History of Egypt,
fig. 119.
5, 6. The effect which the captivity of Cush and Misraim is
to have on the Philistines and their Palestinian allies ; And they
XX. 1-6 347
shall be dismayed (8^ n.) and ashamed because of Cush their hope
(DD3D), to whom they looked (l3*3n, 22^-^^) as a source of
strength for help, and because of Misraim of whom they had
made their boast, as being with all its irresistible might on their
side ; * and the inhabitants of this coast of Palestine shall say in
that day. Behold thus is our hope become whither we fled for
help to deliver ourselves from the king of Assyria ; how then can
we be saved? The subject of the vbs. in v.* has to be gathered
from the sufifixes in D13DD, DmxBD ; it is not more explicitly
stated till v.^ ; Marti accounts for this awkwardness by assum-
ing that v.*^ is a gloss, Du. with more probability by assuming
that the original biography has been abbreviated at this point. —
The inhabitants of the coast"] Sargon, not unnaturally, at a dis-
tance of 400 miles, groups together the inhabitants of Philistia,
Judah, Edom, and Moab as those that inhabit the coast; but it is
strange for a resident in Jerusalem to use, if he does so, the
phrase so comprehensively: in 232-6 "the inhabitants of the
coast " are, naturally enough, the Phoenicians ; and in Zeph 2'
"the inhabitants of the region of the sea "are the Philistines.
Possibly we have again some awkwardness due to abbreviation.
— How then shall we escape] the pron. is emphatic (cp. 2 K 10*) ;
it refers to that part of the inhabitants of the coast who had not
previously fled.
I. on^'") . . . K3 njra] onS'i may carry on the infin., In the year the
Tartan came . . . and fought (Dr. §§ iiyf.), then the whole of v.^ is a
definition of the year in which something took place ; this something, if
V.2 were absent, would naturally be Yahweh's speech in v.* (tdkm : cp. Dr.
§ I27j8) : at present v.^ intervenes most awkwardly ; K'nn nya would not be
a normal way of introducing what happened at the time defined by 'iii mra,
even if there were any probability that the oracle of v.* was communicated
in 711 B.C., and that of vv.^* three years later. In the year the Tartan
came, etc., he fought . . . and took, would be a possible translation of v.^,
but it would be rather pointless. — 2. prn] with the art. (cp. 2 S 2i^^ 2 K
6^), but l'?y3. pr, sackcloth, with suffix, only occurs in late passages — Est 4*,
Ps 30^*^. — Diiy] usage (see above) must determine the degree of exposure
implied by this word, whether it be rightly derived from my (Ew., Ges.,
Sta., as cited with approval in BDB ; and see especially Schwally, ZATIV,
1891, pp. 175 f.), or Diy (Kon. ii. 120; Barth, NB 41 f.). — 3. Q'Jr rW] on
the possibility that these and the following words originally stood in the
narrative (cp. v.^) rather than in the oracle, where they have nothing
corresponding to them in the correlative sentence beginning with j3, see
above. If they are in place here they are ace. of duration (G-K. 118^),
qualifying "iSn, walked for three years. The position of the words, not to
348 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
discuss other reasons, is against the alternatives : ( i ) Walked (being thus)
a sign for three years (Del.) ; (2) in the third year a sign, etc., i.e. a sign
of what is to happen three years hence — probably intended by accentuation
of MT.— 4. Tchi . . . 'ar] abstract for concrete. QSc omits niSj ; for the
punctuation mVa, see G-K. 95/. — ^in'i di^v] ace. of the state in the sing,
after plurals: cp. Job 24^", see G-K n8^. — 'S^bqi] MT treats the word as
a sing. (G-K. 87^) ; 'gisfni was intended.
XXI.
The chapter consists of three poems (a) w.^"^® ; (d) w.^^'* ;
(c) w.i^"^^ ; and a prose note, v.^^
The poems are correctly distinguished from one another by
titles characteristic of chs. 13-23 (see 13^ n.) prefixed to them.
Not improbably the poems are the work of a single writer, and
were composed in Palestine shortly after the middle of the 6th
century b.c. " Common to all three are (a) the obscure oracular
utterance . . . , (^) the strongly marked visionary element in the
writer's experience, and (c) a certain readiness of sympathy with
the foreign nations concerned in the predictions " (Skinner) ;
also (d) the dominance of a rhythm produced by the succession
of lines, or clauses, of two accents is common to vv.^"^^ and ^i^-
A date between 549 and 538 b.c. best satisfies the historical
situation presupposed in vv.^'^® ; the language in vv.^^*^'^ points
to a date considerably later than Isaiah's.
XXI. i-io. — A vision of the approaching fall of Babylon {before
the Persians).
Special Literature: — ?. Kleinert in ThSK^ 1877, pp. 174-179;
H. Winckler, ATUniersuchungen, pp. 120-125 ; T. K. Cheyne, Introduction
pp. 121-131 ; S. R. Driver, Isaiah: his Life and Times,^ pp. 216-219.
The lines, or portions of lines marked off by | (cp. p. 76), in the following
translation, correspond to two accents, except that v.^* Ms 3 : 4 (or omitting
*S'DB, 3 : 3), and that v.^^* ** could be more easily read as 3 : 3 than as 2 : 2.
Parallelism prevails though not quite uninterruptedly ; it is commonly
between periods of two accents, but in v.**- *• between a combination of two,
and in v.* of three such periods.
^ [A roaring ?] as of storms
As they sweep through the Negebl
It cometh from the wilderness,
From the terrible land.
XX. 4 ; XXI. 349
* A stern vision | has been told to me ; —
"The violator is violating,
The spoiler is spoiling.
Go up, O 'Elam,
Lay siege, O Media,
Cause all the ... to cease."
3 Therefore filled are | my loins with writhing,
Pangs have seized me | as of a woman in travail.
I am bent (with pain) at what I hear,
I am dismayed at what I see.
* My mind wandereth.
Shuddering has affrighted me;
The twilight that I longed for
Has been turned for me into trembling.
* They are arranging the tables !
They are spreading the carpets !
They are eating, they are drinking 1
"Rise up, O princes.
Rub the shields with oil."
^ For thus said | the Lord unto me : —
"Go station the watcher.
What he sees, let him tell.
■^ And if he see a riding company,
Horsemen in pairs,
A riding company on asses,
A riding company on camels.
Then let him attend attentively,
With great attention."
* And he cried ...
"Upon a watch-tower, O Lord, | am I standing | continu-
ally by day;
And upon my guard-post | am I stationed | all the
nights.
* And, behold there, coming,
A riding company of men,
350 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Horsemen in pairs."
And he resumed and said,
"Fallen, fallen is Babylon,
And all the images of her gods are shattered to the earth."
^^ O my threshed one and my child of the threshing-floor !
What I have heard | from Yahweh of Hosts | the God of
Israel,
I have told unto you.
The poem describes four scenes seen in a vision, or a
succession of visions : — (i) the horrors of war are proceeding,
and a cry is heard summoning Elam and Media to attack a city,
v.2j (2) preparations are made for a banquet, and the banquet
is proceeding when suddenly there comes the cry. To arms !
and the princes, or captains, are called from the table to the
field, v.5 ; (3) troops mounted on horses, asses, and camels are
advancing, v.^**', cp. v."^; (4) Babylon is captured and all her
gods shattered to the ground. V.^ is a prelude, in vv.^^- the seer
describes the horror with which the first scene fills him, in v.'^^*
the manner in which he receives the visions, and in v.^^, address-
ing his own much-afflicted people, he ascribes his revelations to
Yahweh as their source.
The city (implied by the term " besiege ") of the first scene
can hardly be other than that of the fourth, viz. Babylon ; the
banquet of the second scene is a Babylonian banquet. The cry
in the second scene carries events in the city down to the time
after the advance of Elam and Media in the third scene, at a
distance from Babylon, has begun : the fourth scene depicts
the fall of Babylon before this attacking force of Elam and
Media.
Thus the capture of Babylon is still future to the writer, so
also probably is the advance of Elam and Media ; but we may
infer that a political situation, which made such an advance prob-
able, already existed. Such a situation existed between 549
B.C., when Cyrus had united under his sway Media as well as
Elam, and 538 B.C., when Babylon opened its gates without a
struggle to Cyrus' Median and Elamite army. And to these
years we may refer the oracle. It was not written after the
event; for Babylon avoided "falling" (in the sense probably
XXI. i-io
351
intended by the writer) by immediate capitulation, and Cyrus, so
far from shattering, made a point of honouring, the gods of
Babylon.
The language, even though it does not demand it, is quite
compatible with the date suggested.
The horror and dismay with which the first scene fills the
seer contrasts, it is true, with the buoyancy and hope which the
career of Cyrus brings to the author of chs. 40-55. But if this
writer is also the author of vv.^^'-, while he shared with the author
of chs. 40-55 the conviction that Babylon would fall and her
idols be destroyed, he did not share with him his optimistic
estimate of Persia ; he rather thought that a change of masters
might mean no amelioration of the condition of the Jews ; and
in any case he is apprehensive that the horrors of war will in the
immediate future affect not only Babylon, but also her captives.
The background of his vision is uncertain : the foreground is
fiercely lighted with the plunder, the violence, the cruelties of
war.
A brief reference to two alternative theories must suffice. They have this
in common, that they assign the oracle to a time when, not Babylon, but
Ass)nria was the oppressor of Judah, with Babylon as its chief opponent, who
as such would be likely to command sympathy among the Jews, (i) Kleinert
refers the oracle to 710 B.C., when Sargon's conquest of Babylon crushed the
hopes that Hezekiah (but surely not Isaiah) had placed in Merodach-Baladan
(2 K 20^''^^-) ; on this view v.^*** " describes not Babylon but Assyria, and the
Elamites and Medians of v.^* • are tributaries serving in Sargon's army. (2)
Wi. arjjues that the situation presupposed is that of about the year 648 B.C.,
when Shamash-shum-ukin of Babylon had formed a great coalition, including
Manasseh of Judah, against Asshurbanipal of Assyria.
The fatal objection (notwithstanding 22") to both these theories is that
Elam on both occasions was acting w/M Babylon, whereas in the vision Elam
is acting against it. This also rules out the possibility that the oracle refers
to Sennacherib's siege of Babylon in 689 (cp. Che. Introd, p. 124).
I. Title. — Oracle (13^ n.) of the wilderness (see v.^*). f^
adds of {the) sea ; but this is absent from ffi, and no tolerable
explanation of the phrase wilderness of the sea has ever been
offered. It has been supposed to mean the country bordering
on the Persian Gulf and separating Elam from Babylon ; but
this is marsh (Wi.), not wilderness. Probably D* in J^ is a
corrupt fragment of the first word of the poem, which may be
missing ; in 5^, v.^* has but one accent.
352 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
In the opening lines of the poem the seer explains how there
has come to him, like tempestuous weather, news from a land
that had ever been a cause of fear. — A roaring] a trace of a
word (? rTiDn, Marti) with some such meaning may survive in
D% which in J^ forms part of the title. —As they sweep through
the Negeb] This vivid touch is more probably due to personal
experience than to mere literary suggestion; the writer was
probably familiar with the Negeb as a resident in its neighbour-
hood. The Negeb, so called from its dry and comparatively
verdureless character, stretched some 60 miles northwards from
Kadesh {Numbers^ p. 138); the seer, like the author of Ps 29,
had seen this country *' shaking " with storms, and had watched
the march of tempests such as, to the minds of Hebrew poets,
accompanied Yahweh when He came from His ancient home
through this district to the help of His people (Jg 5*, He 3^,
Zee 9^*). It is very improbable that Negeb here means the
desert south of Babylon (Di.). — // cometK\ the indef. subj. is
explained by what follows in v. 2*. — The wilderness'] between the
fertile land E. of Jordan and the Euphrates \ the Syrian desert.
2. First Scene. — A stem vision has been told to me] by the
watcher, or second consciousness of the seer (v.^ n.), or by
Yahweh (v.^°). It is far less probable that some other recipient
of visions is thought of. The vision (nitn, 29^^) is one of the
stern (n\i^[>, Ps 60^, i K 14^) realities of war. V.^^- '' refers to
the Persians descending from their mountain home, spreading
ruin and disaster as they go (Du.), rather than to the still
continued violence and treachery (cp. 33^) of Babylon, which
Elam and Media (<*• ®) are called on to stop (Di., Che.). The
term li2, often used of treachery in social relations (e.g. of
adultery), in passages like the present and 24^^ 33^, Hab i^^,
appears to cover in general all the deceits and treacheries, and
all the violations of the social order, that accompany war. — Go
up] ^i^y, which gives an assonance with xh'S^ is not strictly
correct; a Persian, or almost any other, army would actually
go down in to Babylon. The writer, resident in Judah (see on
v.i), transfers to an advance on the capital of Babylon the term
which was appropriately used of approach to Jerusalem (7^ n.). —
Elam] is the great plain E. of the lower Tigris, together with the
mountains enclosing it on the N. and E., and Media is the
country N. of Elam with its centre at Ecbatana (cp. Ezr 6^).
X
XXI. i-s 353
The combination of these two terms is the natural mode of
reference by a late exilic writer to the dominion, or army, of
Cyrus : post-exilic writers (cp. v.^ ffi) might have used the term
Persia, Persians; cp. EBu 3661. — Cause all the , , , to cease"]
the vb. ^n^B^n should most obviously be, like the two that
precede, 2nd fem. imper. MT / have caused to cease^ suddenly
introducing Yahweh as speaker, is improbable. The obj. of the
vb. in J^ is sighing \ but this cannot be satisfactorily explained
in the context, whether we understand by it (1) the sighing of
the Babylonians, for then the phrase would express bringing joy
to Babylon (cp. Hos 2^^)^ or (2) the sighing of the Jews or of
all Babylon's victims, for this would form a most improbable
introduction to the distress of the seer described in w.^'-;
see phil. n.
3, 4. The seer*s emotion at what he has seen (v.*). —
/ am bent {with pain) at what I hear] or / am too bent . , . to
hear^ and similarly in v.**. — 4. My mind wanders] 37, hearty as
often of the organ of mental activities (BDB 524^^); the seer
sees a vision and can describe it, but has lost the wits to fathom
its fuller meaning ; he is prophetically mad (Jer 292^) ; " he here
reveals himself not indeed as a great prophet, but as a true
visionary" (Du.). nyn means wanders (28'' n.), not panteth
(RV). — Shuddering] Twh^ denotes the physical effects of terror ;
see Job 21^, Ezk 7I8, Ps 55^ t : cp. Jlvi'BnS Job ^^—The twilight]
5^^ n. the cool of the day, generally longed for, brought on this
occasion not pleasant rest, but this bewildering vision.
5. The second scene. — This picture of the banqueting
Babylonians (cp. Jer 51^^) is prophetic, not historic. It has, it
is true, some resemblance to the legendary accounts of the
capture of Babylon given in Dn 5, Herod, i. 191 ; but it is
sufficiently natural as a prophetic vision, and not sufficiently
particular to render it necessary to regard it as an historical,
or legendary, addition to the prophecy. The picture does not
correspond to the actual course of subsequent events as recorded
in the Nabona*id-Cyrus Chronicle {KB'\\. 2, pp. 134 f.); according
to this, Nabona*id fled from Sippar, which was captured without
resistance, to Babylon, which two days later likewise yielded
without resistance. — They spread the carpets] on which to recline
at the banquet. The rendering is riot certain, but more probable
than they set the watch I See phil. n. — Rub the shields with oil]
VOL. I. — 23
354 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
that they may not cut into the flesh of those that wear them7
less probably, polish the shields to make them shine.
6-9. Third and fourth scenes. — The Persian advance
on Babylon and the fall of Babylon are reported as seen not
by the speaker himself, but by a third person (cp. v. 2) called
naVDH, the watcher : nevertheless the substance of the 3rd scene
is communicated direct to the speaker by Yahweh (v.'^) : all that
the watcher has to do is to report when he sees what has already
been particularised. Thus the revelation of what is coming is
made in the first instance to the seer; so in v.^<* no intermediary
of revelation between Yahweh and the seer is recognised. The
watcher is the prophet's second self, whom the seer objectifies
and orders to make ready to receive a divine communication.
The nearest parallel in the OT seems to be Ezekiel's ecstasy,
in which it seemed to him that his conscious self was borne
away from the midst of his companions in Babylon to Jerusalem,
and, after seeing much in Jerusalem, returned, and enabled him
to tell his companions what Yahweh had shown him (Ezk 8^*^
1 124^-). Analogies in some respects closer are obtained by the
comparative study of psychical phenomena.
For the comparative data, see Tylor, Primitive Culture^, i. 438 f.: ** Such
temporary exit of the soul has a world-wide application to the proceedings
of the sorcerer, priest, or seer himself. He professes to send forth his spirit
on distant journeys, and probably often believes his soul released for a time
from its bodily prison, as in the case of that remarkable dreamer and visionary
Jerome Cardan, who describes himself as having the faculty of passing out of
his senses as into ecstasy whenever he will, feeling when he goes into this
state a sort of separation near the heart, as if his soul was departing. The
Khond priest authenticates his claim to office by remaining from one to
fourteen days in a languid and dreamy state, caused by one of his souls
being away in the divine province. . . . The Turanian Shaman lies in
lethargy while his soul departs to bring hidden wisdom from the land of
spirits. . . . The Norse chief Ingimund shut up three Finns in a hut for
three nights, that they might visit Iceland and inform him of the lie of the
country where he was to settle : their bodies became rigid, they sent their
souls on the errand, and awakening after three days they gave a description
of the Vatnsdael."
6. Station the watcher'] r\ti'i'OT\ noyn ; Hab. (2^) uses the same
figure of the prophetic activity, but without the implication of
dual personality which has just been discussed. — Let him te//]
to the prophet's first self : cp. " told to me " (v.2), and " I have
told " (v.^^). — 7. There is some uncertainty about the precise
^"^R^Hr
XXI. 6-9 355
meaning of the terms in this v. (see phil. n.), but the scene is
probably of the advance of a hostile army with horses^ asses^ and
camelSy in particular of a cavalcade advancing in double file,
partly mounted on horses, partly on asses, and partly on camels.
It is less probable that the asses and camels are here introduced
as baggage animals. According to Herod, (i. 80), Cyrus largely
owed his victory over the Lydians to placing riders on his
camels, and the Scythians were much hindered by the asses in
Darius's camp (iv. 129). Whether, however, the Persians used
asses for riding in battle is doubtful : Ges., whose note on this
point is full, cites some evidence of the use of asses for riding in
battle, though not by the Persians in particular. — And if he 5ee\
AV, RVmarg. " And he saw," is an illegitimate translation (see
phil. n.). Del.'s exegesis is based on a similarly erroneous inter-
pretation of a^Cypni nfc<"n ; v.'', according to him, describes how
the watcher sees the cavalcade appear and disappear, hearing
nothing ; v.® his cry of impatience that he has stood so long
seeing nothing more ; v.® how his complaint dies on his lips as
he sees the cavalcade re-appear, this time bringing the news of
the fall of Babylon. This would be an attractive mode of sur-
mounting difficulties if it were not philologically impossible.
8. pa the watcher announces that he now sees the cavalcade
which he was to expect (v.*^). — Then he cried] '^ ■{- as a lion,
which has been explained by reference to Rev 10^, a very poor
parallel, for the ominous cry of the angel there might well be
compared to a lion's terrifying roar (cp. Am 3^); but why should
the watcher roar lion-like to God, or even (if we point ""OnK rather
than ^Jnx) to the seer? The comparison with a lion cannot
simply indicate impatience (Del.), even if that were in place
here. Equally unsatisfactory is. Then he criedy A lion! The
word rT'iK is probably corrupt : see phil. n. The remainder of
v.* seems to imply that the watcher stood long, at least many
days and nights, on the watch to which he was appointed (v.'^),
before he saw anything. But this allusive and inferential way
of marking a long interval is not altogether natural, and v.* per-
haps implies that the whole series of visions came on a single
evening ; moreover, v.^ leads us to expect that the watcher will
address the seer and not God (v.^^). Marti omits v.^''- '^ as a
gloss suggested by 62*. But the purpose of such a reflection
356 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
just here is not obvious. — pa-C. The vision of the cavalcade
summarily related. The sequence is rather awkward ; for it is
rather forced to say, with Del., Di., that as he begins to complain
(v.^, which does not in itself at all necessarily suggest complaint),
the vision comes and makes him break off his complaint. Yet
the only escape from some such attempt is to assume either
interpolation (with Marti) or mutilation. — pd. e. See above,
p. 350 f. — 10. The divine revelation, which he has just received,
the seer now declares to his long and much-afflicted people who
have been held in thrall by Babylon. The figurative singular
terms my threshed one and my son of the threshing-floor^ pass over
into the distributive plural to you at the end of the v. For
other uses of the figure of threshing to express the hard or
cruel treatment of a land or people, cp. 41^^ Am i^, Mic 4^^,
Hab 3^2. With son of my thres hi ?ig floor, cp. Jer 51^^ "The
daughter of Babylon is like a threshing-floor at the time when
it is trodden," i.e. trodden down hard, in readiness for the
threshing (see Dr. ad loc),
I. D' nano] Du. Dn3^D (an unparalleled plural) ; Che. Dn8'3 ; both im-
probable ; see above. — n'?nS] Dr. § 205. ^n is used of a flood in 8®, of
wind in Hab i^^ — 2. r\vj> mm] ace. with the pass, as 17^ (G-K. 121^] ; less
probably ace. of the state (G-K. ii8«). — n« . . . 'Vi^J fern, as 7^42", Jer
50^**, 2 S 8^ : see G-K 122/. ffir, incorrectly, iv ifiol = ''hli, and ol vpia^ets
= n?f. — 'nnBTT nnnax Vd] fflr ^tt' ifik ipxovrai' vvv aTevd^oj Kal irapaKoX^ab)
i/xavrdv may imply a longer text (cp. Ruben, Crit. Remarks^ p. 8) ; nnnjK
suggested orivd^w (cp. 24') : the rest is uncertain. — nnnjN] with he raphe
(MT) means sighing (G-K ^og) ; n^pnjN, her sighing. Both are difficult ; see
above : possibly the word is an error for nmxJ (cp. 13^^) or •"nnno??' (cp. Jer 7*^).
— 3. n'?n'?n 'jdd ik'?d] cp. cano ^yi rhxhr\\ Nah tP^. — 'myj] cp. PS38'; Ar.
^tfC- means to bend^ twist {e.g. a bow, rope). — dintd . . . yoB'D] p is causal
(Du.), as in 48^, Dt 7'** 9^, 2 S 3^\ rather than negative or comparative. —
Dt?] the subj. isindef.: G-K. 144^.-5. nh?? hSzi^ . . . n&^f . . . 7i*iv] G-K^
113^ — n'fli-n nsx] not set the watch (RV), for (i) nBJ< means to watch, or in
Piel to xvatch closely, (2) Ji'Bs is not a probable form for watchman ; (3) the
idea is differently expressed in v.* ; (4) the meaning is not very suitable to the
context. Watch {in) the watch tower (AV) and observe the horoscope (cp.
Ew.), apart from other objections, are also not probable in the context.
Both noun and vb. are rather from the root nsif, which in Piel means to
overlay (with metal) ; the Kal may have meant to lay, the noun something
laid (cp. |A<y> . . a mat, matting), i.e. a carpet, or, as others think, a
table-cloth : see, further, Che. Introd. p. 126, n. i. — 6. 'nN '*?« ton ns o] so
v,^^ save that the order there is '*?« '^n ; also (with ni.T for 'JHn) 8^' 18^ 31^
— nsj^Dn noyn i^] noyn, make to stand, station (cp. e.g. Nu ii^* JE) is not
XXI. I-I2 357
necessarily late: see Dr. LOT'^ 503 (^535), no. 4; Koppel {ZATW^ 1910,
pp. 58-60) is less discriminating. |^ can be read nuxo moy naS, Go^ stand as
a watchman (Buhl, ZATIV \'\n. 157 f.) ; or naxon noy na*?, which, assuming a
construction harsh in itself and improbable in view of v.", might be rendered,
Go, stand on the watch-tower (Stade, ZATW viii. 165 ff. : cp. Kautzsch in
DB V. 674 n. ). Either of these readings, if all the consequential changes of
2nd or 1st for 3rd persons in vv.'"' were also adopted, would remove the
representation of a double consciousness in the prophet (see above). But in
criticism of Buhl and Sta., see Du. and Che. Introd. p. 125. — ra' TiVd"^ (!&
fSgs dj'(i77«Xoi' : so (v.') tXhov instead of nxT; but in v.* <&. agrees With "^
in reading laK'i jyi in the 3rd pers. Cp. last n. — 7. 3'rpm . . . nxni] Dr.
§ 149. And he saw (RV) would be K-jn.— aan] a collective noun (373, cp. Ar.
t^,^.). or the part. 33n used collectively (20^ n.), meaning riders, a riding
company, Cp. 22', but in 2 K 7" the pi. 3?*i is perhaps more probable. —
8. nn«] an early (cp. fflr) error (see above) ; Marti reads n»<nK, and by omitting
the rest of v.^ (see above) obtains the phrase nj'Ti r\\r\tK\ cp. Zee 2^*' etc. —
9. ni nam] ni is enclitic as in i K 19", Ca 2"- : see BDB, p. 261. — r'lc]
collective : cp. Jos 9''*, Jg 20^^, Mesha's inscription, 11. 10, 13. Ct the
genitives of the animals ridden in v.' (cp. Ar. (J-*>.Sf- .,_ ^\X Sta. omits,
appealing precariously to (!K : rhythmically some word seems required here.
— Tcrh^ ''?'DS] cp. Dt 7^ 12*. C& rd dydX/iara a.irrr\% koL rb. xapo-Koi-iYra.
airrrjs, which is possibly a doublet of an early text which read n'S'OB
( = ^22 's, Jer 51*') or .thSk, only. — 10. (K is very free, but not briefer.
XXI. II, 12. — An ambiguous answer to a question from Edom,
The distichs are 2 : 2 (cp. w.^*^**) ; v.^^a j^^s 2, but v."» 3, accents.
11 Unto me one is calling from Seir : —
"Watchman, how far is the night spent?
Watchman, how far is the night spent?"
12 The watchman said,
"The morning hath come,
And the night, too;
Would ye inquire, inquire,
Come back again."
A brief, but obviously complete, oracle. Some Edomites
inquire of the seer how far gone is the night of oppression
through which they are now passing. The seer replies that a
change is coming, but whether with it any permanent relief is at
present obscure to him. If his questioners care to do so, let
them ask again another day.
358
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
lb»1
If this oracle is by the same author and approximately of
the same date as vv.^"i^ (see p. 350 f.), it was written between
549 and 538 B.C. ', the night that now is, is the Babylonian
oppression ; the morning which he sees to be coming, is the
imminent (cp. v.^^) overthrow of Babylon by the Persians ; the
night beyond is the dominion of the Persians from which Edom
and Judah will not escape, and which may prove as veritable a
night as that of the Babylonians. The vision of the Persian
advance is here a vision of night, as in v.^ it is a vision filling the
seer with anguish.
Apart from its probable connection with vv.^^^^, there is
nothing that would closely define the date of this oracle. The
language suggests a relatively late date, say not earlier than the
exile. The vbs. SHK and nvi are the regular Aramaic equivalents
of fc<U and i^xr ; nj;3 in the Heb. of OT occurs elsewhere only
in Ob. v.^; nnx, though not the form KHK (G-K. 75^^), occurs
more frequently, viz. (i) in late writings, e.g. 7 times in Deutero-
Isaiah; (2) as a synonym of KU in Dt 33^; fc?n^i, Dt 33^1, is
doubtful. The multiplication of the forms with the third radical
•• (1712 n. ; G-K. 75?^) is also significant.
Of other theories of date two may be mentioned: (i) Buhl
{Gesch. der Edofniter^ pp. 68 f) refers the oracle to the time of
"increasing impatience and feverish unquiet" occasioned by
Tiglath-Pileser, who exacted tribute of Kaus-malaka, king of
Edom; (2) Che. {Introd. 130 f.) dates the prophecy in 589 b.c.,
when Nebuchadnezzar moved into Syria; this would be four
years after Edom united with Judah in rebelling against Babylon
Qer 27^), and just before it "purchased by its malignant conduct
the undying hatred of the Jews."
II. The Hebrew title. The oracle of Dutnah, presents an
unsolved riddle ; no important Edomite town of the name of
Dumah is known, and it is wholly improbable that an oracle
concerned with Edom as a whole would be named after some
insignificant place. Oracle of silence (nDH, Ps 94^'' i is^^'f) would
be contrary to the analogy of the other titles, whether it be
explained as meaning oracle of {the. land that is to be reduced to)
silence^ or as a poor witticism suggesting that the oracle does not
say much ; see also phil. n. — Is calling] urgently and insistently,
as the repetition of the question suggests. — From Se'ir] Edom ;
so, e.g.y Gn 33^*, Dt 2*. It is the nation as a whole that asks
,.->..
XXI. ii-is
359
the question, but as the reply is to a plurality of persons, the
question was probably conveyed to the seer by certain Edomite
individuals. People of one country might consult the seers of
another (2 K i^^*); so, apparently, the fame of this, to us un-
known, Jewish seer extended to Edom, on or near whose borders
his home may have lain (21^ n. on Negeb). — Watchman'] not
navD, one looking out (for a foe), but "IDK^, a guardian^ or night-
patrol; Ca 5^ Ps 127I 130^ Is 62^; cp. ^niDCD, V.7, Hab 2^
II. non] ffi r^s 'ISou/io/as, possibly an interpretation rather than a variant
(onK). — K^p] part., is callings with the indef. subj. unexpressed (Dr. § 135 (6)).
— n^'So no] the JD is partitive, how much of the night (is spent) ; BDB 580^.
— S'^] this shorter form, used here for variation, occurs also in 30^ 15^ 16',
Ex 12" (Sam. n^'*?), Pr 31^8 (K'tib), La 2i» (Ktib). MT punctuates S'^ in
15* also.— 12. vnK ujf] G-K. 120^.— r^iy] forr^ig; G-K. 76^/.
XXI. 13-15. — Fugitives escaping from war into Arabia.
Clauses of 2 (v.^**) or 3 (vv.'*''- '') accents. These are combined (cp.
26'"*') into units of 6 accents, parallel in sense, in v.^, and also in v.** if
O'jni mniK is a parallel to KD'n pK '3»', and to be connected with v.". V,"
is doubtful, and probably corrupt.
1* . . . in . . . must ye spend the night.
The caravans of Dedanites | ^* to meet the thirsty | brought
water ;
The inhabitants of the land of Tema | met the fugitives
with bread.
15 For from the sword had they fled, | from the sharpened
sword,
And from the bent bow, | and from the stress of war.
These lines, probably a fragment, are ambiguous. V.^* may
be imperative, O caravans . . . bring, O inhabitants . . . meet)
and the caravans of Dedanites may belong to v.^^ (MT), as it is
generally understood to do. But if the above translation be
correct, the fugitives are not defined in the fragment. On the
other hand, if the correct translation is, Ye must spend the night,
O caravans of Dedanites. To meet the thirsty bring (or they
brought) water, etc., the fugitives of v.^*, though there spoken of
in the 3rd person, may be the Dedanite caravans addressed in
v.^8. Then we might assume that the situation is as follows : —
360 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Arab caravans, instead of finding their usual mart and returning
with merchandise, have found war, and have fled without being
able to provision themselves ; to avoid being overtaken they have
turned aside from the caravan track and the regular stations on
it where water would be found. Consequently their friends in
Tema meet them, or are bidden to meet them, with food and
drink. Even on this interpretation the place whence the fugitives
flee is undefined : probably enough in any case, and certainly if
this fragment be from the same hand as vv.^^^^, it is Babylon,
though the Dedanites traded also elsewhere {e.g. Tyre, Ezk 2720).
As to the language of the fragment, note vnn (see above, p. 358).
If the piece is from the same hand as vv.^"^®, then v.^* and
(if not imperative) v.^* also probably describe what is seen in
vision, rather than an actual historical flight.
13. Oracle . . .] the oracle is defined by 11^3, the second
word of the poem (cp. v.^) ; the meaning is uncertain, see below.
The title is entirely absent from ffi, and may have been added
by a later hand than that to which the titles in vv.^* ^^ are due.
According to J^ (also ffi), the persons addressed are to spend
the night lyU, in the forest (cp. e.g. 7^), or thicket^ scrub (cp.
Mic 312 and Syr. IjJLj, a thicket). The point of this is not
clear, nor its suitability to Arabia ; but it is precarious to infer
that 1V^ has here exceptionally the sense of the Arab -cj, roughs
stony ground. A second definition, possibly also of place,
follows ; myn may, indeed, mean in the evening (so ffir ; cp. Ps
30^); but it has also been rendered: {i) In Arabia, yet else-
where in OT my is the coll. term for the people, the Arabs ; or
(2) in the steppe] in this case niy here =7\:r\V (33^ 4°^ 4^^^ etc.).
AH very uncertain. — Caravans'] cp. Gn 37^^ and, in spite of
different punctuation. Job 6^^^-. — Dedanites] The references in
OT (Gn 253 (J) io7 (P), I Ch i^\ Jer 2523 498, Ezk (2513) 2720
38^3) and in the Minaean and Sabaean inscriptions suggest that
" Dedan was a tribe with permanent seats in S. and central
Arabia, and trading settlements in the N.W." {EBi. 1053). In
Jer 2823 Tema is mentioned immediately after Dedan. — 14. On
the connection of vv.'^^- and on the ambiguity of the verbal
forms in v.^*, see p. 359.— 7%^ thirsty] KOV, like ma, is coll.,
the thirsty ones. RV creates an unreal distinction by rendering
him that is thirsty and then pi. fugitives.— Met . . . with bread]
xxr. 13-16; XXII. 1-14 361
cp. Dt 2^.— Te}}ia\ Gn 251*, Jer 252^. Tema, mod. Teima in
the Hejaz, in N.W. Arabia, is a place with a famous water-supply,
and was tor long an important commercial station. Tiglath-
Pileser in. refers to it (smaller inscriptions, i. 27, ed. Rost; cp.
Annals, 218); and native Aramaic inscriptions, probably of the
4th or 5th cent. b.c., indicate its continued importance, as also
the influence on it of both Egyptian and Assyrian influence : see
CIS ii. 1 13 f. ; Cooke, NSI^ pp. 195 ff.
14. vnn] Hiph. of nriK with quiescence and loss of k ; cp. Jer 12', and see
G-K. 68/. Imperative, or (G-K. 76^) pf.— KD'n] so CIS 113 ; in Job 6^"
KDn.— iD-np] <&. avvoLvrdLTt-xa^^. — 15. ntritsj] an error for, or parallel form to,
ncnef?. — naaj cp. mja nonVDm, Jg 20** ; 'on naam, i 831^.
16 f. A note in prose added to the last poem, and announc-
ing the almost total destruction of the Arabs within a definitely
fixed time. The future of the Arabs is darker here than in
yy 18-15 . there Arabia is the place of flight from danger, here no
escape is possible. The language is " Isaianic " throughout (Di.)
in the sense that the vv. probably contain no word which Isaiah
did not use, or might not have used : but the truth is, the
language is too general to afford any criterion of date.
For thus hath the Lord said unto me] cp. v.^ n. — Within a
year] cp. 16H Perhaps, as in i S 13^, a number has dropped
out; note the pi. (^, not ffi) in the following phrase, as the years
of a hireling (16^*). — Kedar] in Gn 25^^ a particular Ishmaelite
tribe, but here and in some other passages (42^^ 60^, Jer 2^^) it
is probably a comprehensive term for nomadic peoples of the
deserts E. and S. of Palestine.
16. niy3] so in the gloss 7^ ; so also, e.g.^ Gn 40". Ct. D'jr vSvi, 16".—
■WB'i] followed by five genitives : cp. lo^^.- nrp] the pi. would be expected ;
Houb., Lowth, al. transpose nrp nuj, warriors of the ^<7a; = archer- warriors.
XXII. 1-14.
The rhythm is neither clear nor, apparently, the same throughout.
Vv.'"^* seem to be mainly prose, vv.'^"''"* may once have been throughout,
as v.^^- ^ is still, 4:4; see n. on v.^^ ; but v."*' "^ is 4 : 6 unless we omit two
words in v.^***'
In vv.^"^ the prevailing rhythm is of an echoing type : 4:2 in v.2»- *>
and *=• ** (but see phil. n.) ; 4 : 3 in v.^ (but see phil. n.) ; the rest may b^
3:2.
362 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
In v.^, probably also in v.', and clearly again in ^^^' " the rhythm is
balanced.
1 What meanest thou, then, that thou has gone up,
One and all to the house-tops,
2 Thou with uproar filled, tumultuous city,
Exultant town?
Thy slain are not slain with the sword,
Nor dead in battle;
3 All thy chieftains have taken to flight a a
Have fled far away.
* Therefore I say, " Turn away from me.
Let me weep bitterly;
Be not insistent to comfort me,
For the destruction of the daughter of my people."
^ For a day of panic and trampling and confusion
Hath the Lord Yahweh of Hosts.
In the valley of vision . . ,
... to the mountain.
* Elam took up the quiver, a a
And Kir drew from its cover the sword.
^ Thy choicest valleys were full of chariots.
And the horsemen set themselves in array towards
the gates.
^^ And * ye ' looked in that day to the weapons in the House
of the Forest,
^ And perceived the breaches in the city of David ;
11^ But ye looked not to Him that wrought it.
Nor perceived Him that planned it long ago.
■X-
^2 And the Lord Yahweh of Hosts hath called in that day
To weeping and lamentation and baldness and
girding on of sackcloth ;
* ' And ye collected the waters of the lower pool ; ^° and ye numbered
the houses of Jerusalem, and pulled down the houses to fortify the (city)
wall, ^^ and a tank ye made between the two walls for the waters of the
old pool.
XXII. I-I4 3^3
^* And lo ! joy and rejoicing,
Slaying kine and slaughtering sheep,
Eating flesh and drinking wine,
Eating and drinking, "For, to-morrow, we may
die."
^* And Yahweh of Hosts hath revealed Himself in mine
ears —
"Surely this iniquity shall not be expiated for you
till ye die!"
Clear and insistent in this section is the contrast between
the prophet's dark vision of destruction and the light-heartedness
and recklessness of the people, who give themselves up to
revelry, either because they do not perceive the issue of things,
and see in a temporary alleviation a permanent relief, or because,
feeling the insecurity of the present, they are determined to
drown their cares in wine and feasting (v.^^^-). But whether the
section is a unity, and, if not, of how many different elements
it consists, are difficult questions, especially the last : the details
given in prose in vv.®^^^* certainly look like an incorporated note ;
but of the poetical parts, separated from one another in the
foregoing translation by lines, which (if any two) formed origin-
ally parts of the same poem? There seems to be some dis-
tinction of rhythm (see above), and details of connection are
discussed below in the notes. All that need be attempted here
is to indicate some general features which have been differently
interpreted.
Interpreters have differed as to whether this section is a
prophecy of the future, or a narrative describing the present or
the past, or partly the one, partly the other. The prose note
9b-iia jj^^y t)g safely pronounced to be narrative. Moreover, it is
quite rightly claimed (Di.) that the prophet is unlikely to have
condemned the people (v.^*) for sins they had not yet committed :
it follows that the revelry described in v.^^ (and, if it belong to
the same poem, in v.^) is present or past. On the other hand,
v.* is a prediction of the coming day of Yahweh (see below
on v.^).
We may briefly then indicate a possible, and on the whole
most probable, interpretation as follows : in vv.^- ^ the poet
depicts the city of Jerusalem as he sees it actually — noisy,
_^
364 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
%
exultant, swarming up to the housetops to watch some spectacle :
in vv.2<=-3 he describes (prophetic pf.) his vision of the real issue
of events to which the city is blind — the city forsaken of its
leaders, captured by the enemy, and its citizens ignominiously
executed. In v.^ he rejects the efforts of some of the
" maffickers " to cheer him up ; he turns from them to bewail
the still future, but to him certain, destruction of his people, —
to him certain, for (v.^) he knows that the Day of Yahweh is
at hand and what it means : it is a day of tumult in the valley
of vision, of panic in Jerusalem. If vv.^^- are a real sequence,
v.^ describes some of the elements (Kir and Elam) in the army
which on the day of Yahweh will attack Jerusalem, and v."
reinforces v.^*'-'^; again, if w.^*^^, apart from the incorporated
prose note, are a real sequence, ^^- **• i^^- '^ (^ is altogether obscure)
describes the people of Jerusalem, thus attacked, attending to
the material defences of the city, while neglecting Yahweh.
Yy 12-14 brings us back to an historical situation similar to that
of v.^, and a similar estimate of its outcome : instead of mourn-
ing, to which Yahweh has called them, the people are given over
to feasting, therefore their fate is irrevocably sealed : they must
die.
The period to which we might most probably assign w.^'^, ^^-i*
is that of Sennacherib : what is described is the revelry to which
the city gave itself up when the Assyrian king in 701 B.C. raised
the siege, or blockade, of Jerusalem. It is doubtful whether
v.^ fits into the political circumstances of that time (see below).
A few diflferent theories of analysis, interpretation, and date may be
briefly referred to : Among modern writers, Di., Hackmann (pp. 92-97), and
Cond., for example, maintain the unity of the entire passage, and Cond.
regards even vv.^^"^^* as poetry. Du. treats vv.^"', ^"^^ (omitting ^•'-"a.j as two
different poems, the first written before Sennacherib's attack on Jerusalem,
the second somewhat later. Che. distinguishes vv.^''^ from ^'^^ ; in ®'^* he
regards ^^-^^'^ as interpolated, and suspects omissions between vv.^ and *,
^ and ^, and ' and ^ : both poems he refers to the removal of the Assyrian
blockade. Marti refers ^"', ^^'^^ (not necessarily parts of the same poem) to
the period of the raising of the blockade ; in ^'^^ he sees an interpolation, later
than Deutero-Isaiah, by some one who interpreted the day of panic (v.°) of
Sennacherib's attack on Jerusalem. On Sayce's theory that the date of the
prophecy was 711, and the occasion a hypothetical siege of Jerusalem by
Sargon, see Dr. LOT^ 217 f. Accepting Du.'s analysis into two poems,
vv.^*'^, '*'^*, Wi. {Aliorientalische Forschungen, ii. 253-259) eliminates v.* and
in v.* the words mK3i' mn' "VMih as the interpolation of an editor who errone-
XXII. 1-5 3^5
ously understood the city referred to, to be Jerusalem. In what remains Wi.
sees an "Isaianic" poem referring to the attack of HalhidaS, the Elamite,
on the Babylonian city of Sippar in 694 B.C., and expressing the hope that
Elam, the great rival of Assyria, may succeed. The theory requires us to
read nv for vv in v.", onK for dik in v.', and to understand n» in v.' as a
proper name. The theory itself is most improbable ; but it draws attention to
the real difficulty occasioned by the reference to Elam. Corn. (ZATIV, 1884,
pp. 96 f. ) doubts the Isaianic origin of the entire section on account of its
incompatibility with lo'*'^' 32. 33 : Stade {ib. p. 257), questioning rather
chs. 32. 33, regarded 22 as at one time connected with 28-31, and 22*"" as a
prophecy delivered by Isaiah in the temple on the occasion of a feast.
I. Title. — Oracle (13^ n.) of the valley of vision {v.^ n.).
1-5. The gay city and the prophet's vision of
disaster and death. — i-2b. A rhetorical question ad-
dressed by the prophet to the merry-making city which has
swarmed up to the flat roofs to watch thence (Jg 162-^ the
spectacle of Sennacherib's retreat (cp. 37^^), or something
similarly pleasing, such as the entrance into the city of the
captive Assyrian vassal Padi, king of Ekron (Du.). The careless
merry-makers (5^* 24^ n.) think all danger past; Isaiah thinks
otherwise, and sings to them 2C-3 a few lines of a dirge
depicting what he foresees, the slaughter or plight of the city's
defenders, involving, as v.* (cp. v.^*) shows, the destruction of
the people. — Thy slain are not slain with the sword] nobly
fighting, but have been executed ignominiously after the capture
of the city, or, perhaps, have died of hunger during the siege :
cp. La 4®. — 3. Chieftains] i^® n. — Between v.^ and ^^ there
intervene in f^ several words which are probably intrusive and
almost certainly corrupt : rend.r, without the bow they have been
bound ; all thai were found of thee (fflr all thy mighty ones) were
bound together. Without the bow has been supposed to mean
after the bows had been thrown away, or before there had been
time to use the bows ; the rendering because of the bow is no
more satisfactory, and by the archers (RV) very questionable. —
4. Some of the merry-makers try to cheer up the prophet, who
weeps (cp. 16^, La i^^) at this sad vision; he refuses to be
comforted for the destruction of his people. — Destruction] 13® n.
— The daughter of my people] i.e. the entire population : cp i^ n.
This phrase is not used again by Is ; but see, e.g., Jer 4^1 8^^ —
5. For a day . . . hath Yahweh of Hosts] the phrase is exactly
the same as in 2^2 (n.). The " day of Yahweh " is always a
366 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
future event to Hebrew writers ; and it is altogether unsafe to
assume (Di.) the contrary here. The day is one of nfhumah
um'busah um'bukah ; note the assonance : cp. Nah 2^^ ; riDino
is distraction^ frenzy, panic, such as makes men in battle turn
their arms against one another, cp. i S 14^*^, Zee 14^^; HDUD
(i82 n.) is the trample of the soldiers; cp. the use of the vb. in
Zee 10**; nD13D (Mic 7^t) is confusion ox perplexity, cp. the use
of the vb. of Israel losing its way (Ex 14^). — In the valley of
vision"] if the clause goes with the first part of the v. (MT, RV)
the sentence is a breviloquence for Yahweh hath a day (when He
executes judgment) in the valley of vision : cp. Jer 46^°. It is not
a day directed against the valley (^), which would require 7V
(cp. 2^3) instead of 2. More probably the clause goes with the
last part of the v., which seems to be corrupt. What the valley
(K^:i, 28^) intended was, and why it was so named, is uncertain.
If an attack on Jerusalem is intended, the valley is not the entire
city (2E), or Sion (6r), as a site that is surrounded by higher hills,
but one of the valleys dissecting the city, like the Tyropoean, or
surrounding it, like the valley of Hinnom. Suggested explanations
of the name are that Isaiah lived in this valley (Di.), or that it
contained an ancient oracle (Du.) : of the two the latter ex-
planation has the more probability. The words left untrans-
lated above are very uncertain (see phil. n.) : no less improbable
than any other suggestion is RV a breaking down of the walls,
and a crying to the mountain. The valley as the weakest part of
the city, it is explained, is attacked first and the walls of defence
broken down by the enemy. VIK' is a cry for help \ hence Ges.
suggests that the meaning is : — the cry of the frightened people
in the city resounds to the surrounding hills : this, though im-
probable, is the best that can be done with the text. — According
to Ew. W^, Shoa* (Ezk 23^3), and also the preceding ip, Kir (cp.
n^p, V.6), are proper names of elements in the besieging Assyrian
army : see next v. But the position of the subj. Kir after the
part. '\\r\'^'0 (Dr. 135 (4)), in contrast to the position of the
subjects in v.^, is against this view ; and also the fact that the
vb. is left without an object : moreover, the last clause would be
weak — In the valley of vision Kir breaketh down, and ShocC is
toward the mountain.
I. l'?"no] 3^^ n.— K1SK] i9i2,_-)^3] MT ^iVs (instead of ^Vs, 1429) gives an
assonance with ijS ; cp. G-K. ^le. For the entire city thus regarded en masse.
XXII. 1-6 3^7
cp. 15'; but there the masc, here the more usual fern., is used. For an
elaborate reconstruction of vv.^**, see Che. SBOT, p. 197. — 2. mntrn] ace.
before nn'^D: cp. Nah 3^ .With n'Din ry nn^D niKrn, cp. rju ninrn nnp pon,
Job 39'. Other occurrences of niNtrn are Zee 4', Job 30^'' 36^*1. — ^^"^p] i^^ n. —
ni'Vy] with r\''\p, 32" ; so of Ty, Zeph 2" ; see also 23', and in pi. 248 13*, Zeph
3^^— 3. nn' T«!iD3 *?D nOK nsypo in'] ffi /coi ol aKbvres <rK\r)pQs SedefUvoi elfflv,
Kal ol lirxfjotrres iv aol. Apart from the addition of KaL twice, (& repre-
sents three variants: (i) for nrpD in' (S = |§), n^jj (?) Dinj<, whence Du.
nrp D']q« : cp. 2 Ch 25" njjn nOT tnK, Ca 3^ ; but jnK does not occur
with ntrp; (2) for TK:fDJ, ffi read T«d« (cp. 28^, Am 2^«) M^ ^^^^^-^(y
<7«w, which, if parallel to TJ'J^p, would be preferable ; (3) ffi and also &
omit nn» noK : this may well be correct ; the occurrence of the words
after no« . . . ^^' is poor. Possibly, however, the whole of the words
from nn' (or ntrpo) to nn' is the result of glossing and conflation (Marti) ;
ima pmD | nn' m3 TJ'^p-^j gives a good kinah line.— ncpo] p, without; Jer
48**; BDB 578<5; or, ^ consequence ofy by, ib. 579^ (bot.). — 4. '3D] so 30*;
BDB 577^. — 5* '■'D^"D] ®r Tapaxv^ Kal diruiXeias — a doublet rather than a
variant. — nDi3Di nono] so (HR ; but possibly the second word which adds little
to the sense of n^nriD is an early dittograph : by omitting it, and also 'JIK (ffi)
in the next clause, a good 3 : 2 line is restored. — ip 'ip'ipi:i] the text is un-
certain : (& has irXapwvTai &irb fiiKpov ?ws fJLeydXov, which seems to presuppose
a different and perhaps a fuller text ; but cp. JThS, 1902, p. 583 n. ; Introd.
§ 21. If, however, np were omitted as dittographic, nnn-'?»< ym | '\p'\p'o jvm x'aa
would give a 3 : 2 line, ip is ambiguous, and the sing, rather suspicious .*.
it generally means the wall of a house, but is used exceptionally of a town-
wall, for which the regular term is nmn {^Numbers, p. 468 f.). npip in NH
(but not in Nu 24^', where it is an error for "^p-^p) means to tear down (the walls
of a house, or a city ; Levy) ; npipo might be the part, of this, one tears down,
with subj. unexpressed (Dr. 135 (6)) ; or a verbal noun. The sense is not
recognised by %%'S. — "^t^ ^k yityi] © •Kko.vdvTa.i. iirl t4 6prf. It would be
easy to read yori, resounds (lit. has been heard), for yiB'i ; but this gives no
really satisfactory sense or rhythm,
6, 7. Elam and If ir, i.e. soldiers from these two countries
or peoples, engage in the attack in Jerusalem. On the
question whether these vv. form part of the vision of vv.^'** s. 6^ see
above, pp. 363 ff.
6. The second line in J^ — left untranslated above, is probably
both corrupt and intrusive, for it separates two lines which exactly .
balance one another and correspond to one another, term for
term. The words may be rendered with chariot{s) (or, a riding
company^ 2i''n.), man^ horsemen (or, horses). Omitting, with (!&,
the prep, with (3), reading D"1K for the scarcely distinguishable
DHX, and assuming a doubtful construction of 331 (ace. of the
animal ridden), some have rendered Aram mounted (or, rode
368
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
on) the horses', but (i) the introduction of horses between the
far nearer parallels quiver and shield is improbable; (2) ct.
the post-fixed subj. with the pre-fixed subject in lines a. and b.
The line may be a gloss slightly corrupted (lOV having be-
come din) from 21^ (Marti); or due to the intrusion of
variants on 231 and D"'6yian in v.'^; in any case, the words
are best neglected in attempting to determine the real purpose
and significance of vv.^^-. — Ela?n] 11^^ 21^ nn. Throughout
the period of Isaiah's activity "Elam is the opponent of
Assyria, and its rival for the dominion in Babylon" (Wi.
Altor. Forsch. ii. 257) : Sayce briefly sketches the relations of
the two powers thus: Umman-nigas, king of Elam, "in 721
assisted Merodach-baladan against Sargon . . . He died in 718,
and was succeeded by his sister's son Sutruk-Nankhundi, who in
711 again assisted Merodach-baladan, but this time to no pur-
pose. Sargon defeated and captured his general . . . and added
the Elamite districts of latbur, Lakhiru, and Rasi to Assyria.
After a reign of eighteen years, Sutruk-Nankhundi was imprisoned
by his brother Khalludus, who seized the crown. He captured
Babylon in the rear of Sennacherib . . . and the Babylonian king,
who was a son of Sennacherib, was carried captive to Elam"
{DB i. 675^). Thus though certain districts of Elam were
captured by Sargon, Elam itself formed no part of the Assyrian
empire in the latter half of the 8th cent, as it did of the empire
of Cyrus (21^ n.). In the light of these facts other alternatives
are: (i) to understand Elam as equivalent to such few Elamite
mercenaries as might serve in an Assyrian army though Assyria
and Elam were opposed to one another, or soldiers from those
small portions of Elam which Sargon temporarily annexed in
711; (2) to see in the verses the work of a later writer (cp.
11^^ 21^); (3) with Wi. to treat the poem as a celebration of an
Elamite attack, directed against the interests of Assyria, on a
Babylonian town (Si[)par), — Kir'] a district of this name is
mentioned as the original home of the Syrians (D"iN) in Am 9^,
as the place to which the Syrians were to be exiled in Am i^,
and as the place to which they were actually carried captive by
Tiglath-pileser iii. in 2 K i6'. The references in Am i^, 2 K 16^
may be the result of late inferences from Am 9'^ (see Kir in DB).
Whether ;^ir belongs to the original text of this v. (see phil. n.)
or of v.^; and if so, whether it is identical with the Kir of the
XXII. 6-1 1 369
passages just cited : whether yip (Ezk 23^3) is a miswritten Tp,
or "fp here a miswritten yip ; and where I;^ir was situated — all
this is entirely uncertain. See, further, DB and EBi. s.v. ; also
the references in Ges-B. s.v. l^p. No place or people of the
name has been discovered in the Assyrian inscriptions. — Drew
from its cover] lit. made naked, laid bare \ cp. 3^".
7. The valleys round Jerusalem are filled with, and the city
itself beset by, hostile troops. — Full of chariots ; and the horsemen
have set themselves in array] dividing the sentence differently, and
treating DB^ (commonly taken to be Inf. Abs. strengthening the
verbal idea) as a proper name, Wi. (as cited on p. 368) renders
full of chariots and horses, and Shot sets itself in array, identifying
Shot with the Sittakenians ; but see phil. n.
6. D'Cns D^K 33n3] dvapdrai ApOpunroi i<l> tinrov$. dvapdrai is a legitimate
rendering of 33t (see 21' n.) ; but riders, men (collect, sing.), horsemen is an
improbable group of words. Another improbable makeshift is Di.'s among
chariots, men, horsemen, an appositional phrase to oS'y, mn being prefixed to
D'nD to show that the latter does not here mean horses ! The reading of a
few MSS D'enai (cp. RV) is pretty clearly secondary, and does not greatly im-
prove the line. — O'tfnD] Arnold {fBLit., 1905, p. 45 ff.) argues that 'd always
means {war-) horses, never horsemen. — po my I'pi] ffi koI avvayuyi} irapa-
rd^eui, i.e. Tp is omitted, and pD, which is never rendered irapdra^ts, may
have been read differently ; but ffi read Tr\V, which is virtually my. The meaning
of my is unusual ; but it is at least safer to accept it than to correct to n-^p with an
even more problematical meaning (to raise (the shield)), in order to gain a
paronomasia with ^p, such as does not exist in the parallel line, nor, perhaps,
originally in v.' — '.Ti] could well be spared : it interrupts the sequence of
vv.** ' ; but it was already in ffl in the form vni. — nnao] the choice of: cp. 37^.
Wi. suggests that in all passages where this word occurs, it means simply
the total of , all, like the Assyr. napharu. — yNO ntr] G-K. 113 n. ; but it is
questionable whether ^rw needs strengthening any more than other vbs. in the
context. The view that rve is a proper name and subj. of ^r\v (see above)
would be more probable, if the clause immediately followed those of v.*
which also contain proper names, and if D'nsni more certainly went with
line a. xxo is not recognised by (!&,SC : perhaps it is a mere dittograph :
then 7r\'^x3r\ inr D'ciism is a line of three accents like those in v.* and (neglecting
'HM, and retaining the makkeph of MT) '* 33n \vhn TpDnn3D. Du. prefers
to omit the art. from D'trnsm and to connect it with 33n ; this gives a poor
3 : 2 line down to D'B'nE), and makes it necessary to suppose that the last half of
the next line was lost. For the use of nr, cp. Ps 3^ ; there it is followed by
Vy, here by the ace.
8-1 1. The main thought of these verses clearly is that the
people of Jerusalem have looked to the seen and not to the
VOL. I. — 24
370 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
unseen : they have attended to the material defences of the city,
they have left out of account the Maker of all, the author of the
long-formed plan, which works itself out in human history.
At present the two points are presented with a striking difference of
elaboration — attention to the seen in vv.^^'^^% inattention to the unseen in
y lib. 0^ Probably each point was originally confined to a single distich, and
either vv.** ^'^ or vv.^ (from ^^t'^) to ^^* are intrusive: for note {a) the un-
rhythmical character of most of vv.^-^'*; {d) the remoteness of the verbal
antithesis taani, w.^^, and nntjan nSi, v.^^^ The distich describing the people's
attention to the seen may have been vv.®*** ** (Du., Marti, and in the translation
above), or possibly
And ye looked to the weapons in the House of the Forest,
And ye made the tank between the wall,
the second line being an allusion to some much talked of undertaking of the
time (2 K 20^**, 2 Ch 32^"'). There are certain points which make the view
that the distich was *•'• ** doubtful : (a) Dn'MT in v.^ {io see with concern) is
not used with the same nuance as in vJ^ : {b) the prosaic nN occurs in v.***.
A further question is this : are vv.*"^^ or the two distichs contained in
them the continuation of v."', or from a different poem? The attention to
the defences of the city seems belated after v.*'* ; on the other hand, neither
v.^* nor ^^ is the commencement of a new poem ; if not the continuation of
vv.*^*, these verses are a fragment.
8a. An isolated line, ambiguous in meaning. The subject
of the vb. is hardly the enemy of v.'^ personified, or (in the pre-
sent position of the v.) Yahweh : it is indefinite (cp. 21*, phil. n.)
and the vb. may be rendered by a passive — And the screen of
Judah was removed. The vb. xhl appears to be used here as in
472 of bringing about exposure by removing a covering. The
noun "IDD (v/lDD to cover^ screen) is something that screens from
view, such as the cloth spread over the well-mouth to hide
refugees (2 S 17^^), or hangings of the tabernacle such as that
which screened the Holy of Holies from the Holy Place (Nu
4^ n.), or the cloud which screened the Hebrews from the
Egyptians (Ps 105^^). The sentence may therefore mean Judah,
personified as a woman, is disgraced by exposure (cp. 47^) ; but
in spite of such uses of the vb. as occur in La 3*^, Jg 3^*, it is
curious that "JDD should here be used of wearing apparel. The
usage of 1DD gives still less justification for understanding the
removal of the screen as an exposure of Judah to attack ; and
it is extremely improbable that the clause means that Jerusalem
XXII. 8-9 371
(not mentioned) has been exposed by the capture of the cities of
Judah (2 K 18^3), which formed the screen of the capital; and
equally improbable that it means that Judah awakes to its true
state because the covering over its eyes has been removed.
8b. lVea/>ons] pB^3 is a general term, cp. 2 K lo^, Job 20**,
and pCJ D1% day of weapons^ i.e. battle, Ps 140^, cp. Job 39^^ —
The house of the forest] of Lebanon — was that part of the royal
buildings on Sion where the weapons were kept (i K 72-^ 10^*^);
cp. 39^, Neh 3^^. — In that day] probably an addition when the
whole passage came to be read as a prophecy. — The City of
David] i.e. §ion ; " and David dwelt in the stronghold (mVD),
and called it the city of David," 2 S 5* ; G. A. Smith would limit
the " City of David " strictly to that part of the East Hill lying
south of the Temple {Jerusalem^ i. 155 ff.). — 9b. The statement
about the collection of the water of the lower ((S old^ as in v.^'')
pool covciQS between v.^ and v.^^ which. deal with the walls, and
is separated from v.^^^ which refers to the making of another
reservoir; some misplacement of clauses is not improbable.
The lower pool (mentioned only here) may have lain at the
southern end of the Tyropoeon valley : we read of an "upper pool"
in 78. On the more or less ancient and still existing reservoirs,
and for theories of identification, see G. A. Smith, Jerusalem^ i.
1 1 2 ff. The water was gathered together in the pool by construct-
ing new conduits into it, or opening incoming conduits which
had been temporarily stopped (cp. Ges.). The vb. pp can
scarcely mean, as recent commentators mostly explain it, that
the outflow from the pool was stopped and the water thus held
back (cp. also G. A. Smith, Jerusalem^ i. 225). What is referred
to here is a provision for a supply of water within the city, not as
in 2 Ch 322-4 to cutting off the supply outside so as to deprive
the attacking army of water. |*np, commonly used of gathering
many persons or, more rarely, things from different places into
one, is, as here, applied to a liquid in 62® ; but there the gather-
ing of wine refers either to the bringing together of the grapes, or
the drainage of the pressed juice into the wine-vat. — 10. The
houses of Jerusalem are numbered, and the houses selected for
demolition are demolished to furnish material wherewith to render
the (city) wall (no^n) inaccessible (1V3, as Jer 51^^), by filling up
its present breaches, or otherwise strengthening, or repairing,
breaches which will be made by the assailants: cp. Jer 332*
372 COMxMENTARY ON ISAIAH
"the houses of this city . . . which are demolished (to make a
defence) against the (siege-) mounds and against the sword."
The vb. "^DD even in Kal seems at times to mean more than
merely to count \ see Job 14^^ 31^ and cp. the force of the Piel
and the noun ; so that here we may interpret it as meaning
almost to make a list of. Keeping to the narrower meaning, Ibn
Ezra understands the first clause to refer to the numbering of the
house-(holds) of Jerusalem to discover the number of men
available for the war. — lia. The tank or reservoir here
mentioned is also unidentified (see on v.^), but it lay within the
city; so, too, the two walls (cp. 2 K 25^ not necessarily the
same) between which it was situated ; it is suggested that they
were the walls running respectively West of the East and East of
the West Hills ; for other suggestions see G. A. Smith, Jerusalem^
i. 226 f. The tank was constructed to receive water from the old
pool (unidentified), either because this lay outside the city, or, if
within, to receive its overflow. — nb. Cp. 5^^ ; for '^V^ to frame
(in thought), predetermine^ see 37^^ n., and for pmD, 25^. See,
further, pp. 369 f.
12-14. The unpardonable sin of Judah. — Regardless of
Yahweh's power to help (^""^ the people are regardless also of
His call to fasting and lamentation : if the prophet warns them
that their state is desperate, they admit it — to-morrow we may
die, but find therein reason, not for repentance, but merely for
revelry and feasting while opportunity offers; hence, as Isaiah
has learned by direct revelation, their offence is unpardonable ;
they must die. The situation in v.^^ resembles that depicted in
v.^, and the condemnation in v.^^ the minatory vision of w.^-^ (7).
— 12. Cp. Jl 2i2ff. . for the mourning rites, see Is 152^- nn., 32^^^-.
— 13. We may compare, for the attitude of the people, the
Egyptian rule of life cited by Marti from Erman's Aegypten :
" Enjoy the cheerful day and think of joy ere that day come when
you fare to the land that loves silence " : or, again, the early
Babylonian wisdom cited by Barton on Ec 9^^- : " Since the gods
created man, death they ordained for man, life in their hands
they hold, thou, O Gilgamesh, fill indeed thy belly, day and night
be thou joyful, daily ordain gladness, day and night rage and
make merry." The attitude is too obvious and natural for it to
be necessary to assume that Isaiah's contemporaries borrowed it
from their Egyptian allies, or that, like so much else, it had been
XXII. 8-14, 15-25 373
adopted still earlier from Babylon. St. Paul cites from these
words of Isaiah in i Co 15^2^ admitting the soundness of the
doctrine, "if the dead are not raised." — 14. Cp. 1 S 3^*, and for
the opening words Is 5^ n. — Saith the Lord Yahweh of Host 5\ the
words are absent from Cr, and, being very superfluous after the
opening clause of the v., are probably intrusive.
8. mw IDD nn Sa'i] koX dvaKa\tj\l/ov<Tiv tA$ irOXas *Iov8a, not better than
1^. — lyn no] (!R Tvn 'na, obviously corrupt. — oam] (& /cat c>/3\^^ovt(u ; so
all vbs. in ffi are 3rd pers. pi. to the end of v.^"; in v." in agreement with
^ they are 2nd pi. At present in J^ the vbs. of address are 2nd sing. fem.
(of personified Judah or Jerusalem) in vv, i-'- ' : 2nd pi. masc. (addressed to
individuals distinguished among the preceding whole), v.* ; 2nd sing, masc.,
v.* ; 2nd pi. masc, vv.**^*. It is improbable that all these variations occurred
in the original text. V.* occasions no difficulty ; but t33ni, isolated between
2nd fem. sing, in vv.^"'' and 2nd pi. in *"^*, is improbable. If the clause goes
with what follows, restore leani. The consistent use of 2nd sing. fem. in
vv.^'', and, except for B3m, the consistent use of 2nd pi. in vv."*", may be due
to the two sections being from distinct poems. — 10. iwim] G-K. 20m. — ii, n'ry]
fem. suffix to express the neuter t'i, viz. what happens : G-K. 122^ with foot-
note.— 12. Kinn Dvn] perhaps an addition as in v." : possibly also njn is added :
these omissions would make the v. 4 : 4. — int? . . . mnt?] both must be
regarded as Inf. Abs. ; it is suggested that ninr is preferred to the normal
form to gain an assonance with one : G-K. 75«.
XXII. 15-25. — The Disgrace of Skebna and the promotion
of Elia^im.
[Literature. — A. Kamphausen, " Isaiah's Prophecy concerning the
Major-domo of King Hezekiah," in American foumal of Theology, 1901, pp.
43-74, an elaborate, but unconvincing, defence of the unity of the passage and
of the theory that vv.^'- refer to Shebna ; Kemper Fullerton, " A new chapter
out of the life of Isaiah," ib., 1905, pp. 621-642 ; E. Konig, "Shebna and
Eliakim," ib., 1906, pp. 675-686.]
V.^' consists of two rhythmically balanced distichs (3 : 3) marked by
parallelism. Similar, but shorter (2 : 2) and isolated distichs, may be intended
in vv.^" and ^' (down to lapinK). For the rest, the section consists of what
seems clearly prose (w.^'* 2<». 24f.j^ q^ of what may have been once rhythmic,
but has been rendered irregular or prosaic by corruption and misplacements.
In the following translation the attempt to represent poetical structure is
limited to v.^'; this attempt is extended by Du. to vv.^'''^', by Cond. to
yy 16-24 ^tjoth omitting from the '* poem," v.^^**).
1^^ Against Shebna who (had charge) over the Palace. ^^'"^ Thus
said the Lord Yahweh of Hosts, Come go to this steward (and
say),
374 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
1^ What hast thou here, and whom hast thou here,
That here thou hast hewn thee a tomb?
Thou that hewest thy tomb in the height,
That cuttest out a habitation for thyself in the rock !
i'^ Behold Yahweh will hurl, will hurl thee, O mighty man !
. . . 18 . . . into a wide stretching land. There thou shalt die
and there (shall be) thy glorious chariots (?), thou shame of thy
master's house.
1* And I will thrust thee from thy post, and " pull " thee down
from where thou standest. ^o ^^d it shall come to pass in that
day, that I will call my servant Eliakim, the son of ^ilkiah, ^i and
clothe him with thy tunic, and thy sash will I bind about him,
and thy authority will I give into his hand, and he shall become
a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the house of Judah :
22 And I will put the key of the house of David over his shoulder,
and he shall open and there be none to shut, and shut and there
be none to open. ^3 ^^d I will drive him in as a (tent-) peg in
a firm place, and he shall be a glorious throne for his father's
house.
2* And they will hang upon him all the glory of his father's
house, the offspring and the offscourings (?), all the least vessels,
both the bowls and the pitchers. 25 j^ that day, is the oracle
of Yahweh of Hosts, shall the peg which was driven into a firm
place give way, and be hewn down, and fall, and the burden,
which was upon it, shall be cast off, for Yahweh hath spoken.
This prophecy, which contains the only piece of personal
invective ascribed to Isaiah (but cp. Am y^^^-, Jer 2o^^-), is ad-
dressed to Shebna (36^), an official of high rank. It predicts his
exile and death in a foreign land, vv.^^-^^, and the promotion to
his office of Eliakim (362), of whom it is asserted, under the figure
of a peg, firmly fastened, that he will be firmly established in his
position, vv. 20-23. in vv.2*^- it is further predicted that the firmly
secured "peg," weighted down by his family connections, will
ignominiously fall and come to ruin.
We thus have three stages in the future predicted : the fall
of Shebna, the promotion of Eliakim to succeed him, the fall of
Eliakim. Were all these three things predicted at one and the
XXII. 15-25 375
same time? Scarcely: for it is certainly improbable that a pro-
phet should at the same moment, in an address to the person to be
deposed, predict both the promotion and the disgrace of his suc-
cessor. Several ways of escape from this improbability have
been sought: some by desperate exegesis distinguish the "peg"
of V.25 from the " peg " of v.^s, making v.^* refer to the overthrow
of Shebna : * others make w.^-^^- a warning to Eliakim by means
of a conditional prophecy : t Eliakim will come to ruin, if he
practises nepotism ; such a warning addressed to Eliakim himself
might be fitting enough ; there is no probability that it would be
addressed to Shebna : others J again regard vv.^^^- as a subse-
quent addition to the text made when, as a matter of fact,
Eliakim, or his family, had disappointed the expectations set
upon him. This last explanation is the least difficult: vv.**'*
read by themselves no longer imply that they were addressed
to Shebna. Obscure clan struggles, or changing hopes, are
elsewhere more or less clearly reflected in the text of the Old
Testament; see Numbers^ p. 193 on Nu 16 : and cp. the almost
certain elimination of Zerubbabel's name in Zee 6^^
Del. inclines to the view that Isaiah wrote down 22^'"'* at one sitting,
after the fate of both dignitaries had been revealed to him at two different times ;
in this way the Isaianic authorship and literary unity of the passage is main-
tained ; but the form of the prophecy is then a fiction : it was never addressed
to Shebna. Very improbable. Cond. limits the extent of the appendix to
v.^, interpreting v.^ as a continuation of the description of Eliakim's glory.
Also improbable.
Is even vv.^^-^s a unity ? or to a threat addressed to Shebna
(vv. 15-18) was the promise concerning Eliak:im (vv. 20-23) subse-
quently added, whether by Isaiah himself,§ or a later hand ? ||
The two sections are certainly distinguished from one another by the fact
that Yahweh is spoken of (3rd pers.) in the former, but Himself speaks
(ist pers.) in the latter, v.^' in the present text being half in the ist and half
in the 3rd person. If w.^*"* could be regarded as an entirely independent
prophecy, this difference might well be significant ; but inasmuch as the
promise no less than the threat is addressed to Shebna, vv.^"'^' must from the
first have been intended to follow vv.^'^^^^. This being so, the change from
the 3rd to the ist pers. requires explanation in any case : for was a supple-
♦ Rashi, ]^i., Di., Kamph. f Kon., Orelli.
X Hitz., Du., Che., Marti, Skinner.
§ Box. II Du., Che., Marti.
3/6 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
menter more likely than the original writer to make the awkward change which
exists in the present text? Was the first person originally used in vv.^^'^^
also? Has m.T nzn replaced "iin in v.^'? and has 'ui nvT- -\dh nj shifted back
from the beginning of v.^' (cp. 7') to v.^^? Further arguments adduced by
Du. in favour of vv.^^"'^^ being an addition are — (i) the use of Ninn ora n'ni
in v.^ ; (2) the presence of the words Oi2H and n'?B'DD, and the phrase
miiT n'D (see notes below on v.^^) ; (3) that v.^^ is " post festum " : if the major-
domo has been hurled into exile (v.^'**), Yahweh does not need to depose
him ; (4) that though Isaiah might threaten a bad minister, he would not so
far encroach on the royal prerogative as to designate his successor. Argu-
ments (i) and (2) have some weight. The third and fourth are of doubtful
value : if v.^^ is a mere resumption, why should a supplementer have inserted
such a superfluous link? If, on the other hand, it is argued that v.^^ was
intended to correct v.^'^* and to imply that by the time it was written,
Shebna, instead of having suffered the fate predicted for him in vv."*-, had
merely exchanged the highest for another very high office of state (36^), we
may well ask whether it is probable that Isaiah or a disciple of his would have
set the high hopes expressed in v.-"* on a coalition of Eliakim and Shebna :
and again, whether the terms of v.^' are not over strong, if the reference is
merely to an exchange of offices ?
It is doubtful whether the difficulties that beset the assump-
tion that vv. 1^-23 as a unity are greater than those that beset the
theory that vv.^^'^^ were added to vv.^^*^^.
The date of the prophecy can only be determined by the
relation of the circumstances here implied to those described
in ch. 36. Unfortunately this is not clear, or rather the indica-
tions are conflicting. On the one hand, the promise concerning
Eliakim, since it contains no suggestion that Eliakim had pre-
viously filled the office in which he is to succeed Shebna, should
fall before 701 b.c, when Eliakim occupies the position (37^)
here occupied (v.^^) by Shebna. On the other hand, the secre-
taryship held by Shebna in 37^ might quite as well have been
a stage in his advance to the higher office held by him here, as
a stage in his falling fortunes ; and it is certainly strange if
Isaiah had recently fulminated against Shebna in the terms of
vv.^'^^-, that Hezekiah should have selected him as one of the
confidential messengers who were to intercede with the prophet
on the king's behalf. On the whole it is preferable to date the
prophecy before 701 (37^). To escape the conflict by assuming
that two different persons (v.^^ 37^) contemporary with Isaiah
bore the same unusual name is unwise ; it would be preferable
to question whether the official of v.^* was called Shebna (see n.
on v.^5)
xxir. 1S-18 377
There are enough unsolved problems in this section to excuse attempts at
new and bold solutions ; but the data are inadequate, and the newer may
prove as little convincing as the older solutions. Brief reference may be
made to one such solution. Fullerton regards vv.^*'^* as a prophecy of
Isaiah's later than 37^ and delivered at the beginning of Manasseh's reign ;
then, developing an unfortunate suggestion of Che.'s that the language of
vv. 20-23 is "almost Messianic," he interprets vv.*'"^' as a promise of the cronotty
made by a disciple of Isaiah's on behalf of a prophetic and revolutionary party
who were scheming to overthrow Manasseh. The revolution actually came
off, but was unsuccessful, and w."'* express the contemptuous exultation of
the prophetic party over Eliakim's fate.
15-18. A prediction of the disgrace, exile, and death
of Shebna, the governor of the palace. — 15b. This looks
like the misplaced title of the section (see phil. n.). It is not
impossible that the title is merely a late and incorrect inference
from 36^, that Shebna as a matter of fact never was governor
of the palace, and that the object of this invective is really
anonymous. — Come^ g6\ Gn 45^*^, Ezk 3* ; as those two passages
show, we are not bound to render go^ enter in ; consequently we
cannot infer that Isaiah was to seek Shebna in his house, or in
the enclosed grave-ground, though v.^^ would be particularly
appropriate if addressed to him in the act of superintending the
preparation of his costly tomb. — This steward] the term pD, like
the pron. this (cp. 6* n.), may convey a suggestion of contempt :
the masc. form does not occur again in the OT, but the fern,
is used of the maiden who was to be sought out for David and to
serve him by giving warmth to his aged body. On the other
hand, in Phoenician the term was used of important officers or
deputies of the king : in an inscription belonging to an age not
later than Isaiah's a donor in Cyprus appears as "pD of Carthage,
servant (n^y) of Hiram, king of the Sidonians " {CIS i. 5 ; Cooke,
NSI^ pp. 52 f.); and in Tell-el-Amarna Tablet 237^ zu-ki-ni
glosses the term rabisu used of the king's officer before whom
the king of Bihisi takes flight. In Hebrew, too, this honourable
sense may have attached to the word, and the term, like the
English minister in its political usage, may have been applied
quite respectfully to the highest oflficers of state. — Shebnd\ it is
commonly assumed that Shebna was a foreigner, but the assump-
tion is unsafe (see phil. n.); that he was a parvenu is a safer
inference, for between two other officers whose fathers' names are
given, he stands without his father's name (36^ and elsewhere) :
378 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
this gives point to the invective in v.^^ — Who is over the House]
of the king ; the Palace, not the Temple (F), is meant. Great
private persons might appoint persons " over their house," and
the position of such persons was one of great trust and
influence (cp. Gn 39* 44^* *) ; persons appointed over the king's
house, governors of the palace, naturally enough ranked as a
high, if not the highest, officer of state : Jotham during his
regency is described as "over the house" (2 K 15^), and the
occupant of this office takes precedence, at least so far as order
of mention is concerned, of the "IDD and l^STD, who were also high
officials (36^ n.); see, further, i K 4^ 16® 18^, 2 K lo'*. Little
detailed information as to the duties of these governors of the
palace, or major-domos, is given ; but the rank and influence of
the office can be understood in the light of that of the masters of
the palace in the mediaeval courts, and especially of the Prankish
"mayors of the palace." — 16. The intolerable insolence of
Shebna: he is preparing a tomb for himself where he has no
right, or family claim. Not in a tomb in the height, such as
received the bodies of kings (cp., for instance, 2 Ch 32^^) and
people of rank and family, but down in the valley among the
graves of the common people (Jer 26^3, 2 K 23^), would have
been the fitting place for this man, whose father was unknown
(36^). It is the place, perhaps also the fact that Shebna prepares
the tomb himself in his lifetime, that rouses ire. — What hast
thou here] what right have you to be doing what you are doing
here? None. The land is not yours by inheritance. — Whom
hast thou here] what kinsman have you in possession of this
grave-ground to secure your lawful admission to it. Since no
early sepulchral Hebrew inscriptions have been discovered, it is
uncertain how far Hebrew burial custom was like that of the later
Nabataeans, who stringently limited the use of their sepulchres to
direct relatives, or otherwise duly legitimised users : cp. e.g. the
inscription of El-Hejra, B.c. i {CIS ii. 197 = Cooke, NSI^ p.
217) : "This is the sepulchre which *Aidu, son of Kuhailou, son of
Elkasi, made for himself and his children and his posterity, and
for whomsoever shall produce in his hand a warrant from the
hand of *Aidu . . . and may Dfishara and Manfithu and ^aishah
curse every one who shall sell this tomb, or buy it, or mortgage
it, or give it away, or let it, or frame for it any other writ, or bury
any one in it except those who are written above"; cp. the
XXII. 1 6-1 8 379
inscription of Petra, ist cent. a.d. (CIS ii. 150 = Cooke, p. 241) :
"No man shall be buried in this sepulchre save him who has
in writing a contract to bury." It is possible that merely in
preparing his own tomb in his lifetime Shebna was doing some-
thing outr^: this custom, so commonly practised later by the
Nabataeans at Hejra and Palmyra, was exceptional among the
Phoenicians, who were closer both in time and place to Isaiah
(Lidzbarski, NSE, p. 139 f.). — That thou hast hewn for thyself
here] the emphasis falls on here^ and peTha.ps for thyself : in making
a hewn tomb Shebna merely followed the usual practice (cp.
Benzinger, art. Tomb, in EBi. — In the height] by cutting out the
tomb on an inaccessible face of rock, it was better secured against
violation (Benzinger, ib.\ — A dwelling-place] cp. the use of house^
14I8.
17 f. Behold] not therefore : v.^* alludes to the occasion, not
the full cause of the fate of Shebna, which is rather summed up,
though unfortunately far from clearly, in the last words of v.^^ ; he
had been the shame of his master' Sy the king of Judah's, house : but
how? by fostering the Egyptian alliance? Therefore he is to
die far away in the wide plains of Babylon, the land stretching far
in both directions (a phrase used of the vale of Shechem in Gn 34^1 ;
of the country round Dan in Jg 18^°). These are possible, but not
altogether certain implications of the text. — Yahweh will hurl^
will hurl thee^ O mighty man] cp. Ps 54^-'^ " Why boastest thou
thyself of mischief, O mighty man . . . God will pull thee down
for ever." Of the vb. h^bo the Pilpel occurs here only, but cp.
the Hiph. in Jer 22^6 "I will hurl thee and thy mother . . .
into another land, and there ye shall die." This parallel suggests
that the phrase will hurl thee^ O mighty man, should be followed
immediately by into a far-stretching land: at present there
intervene several words, some of doubtful meaning but constitut-
ing, however interpreted, a hysteron proteron to hurl, and a less
satisfactory introduction to the words into a far-stretching land.
Not improbably there is some textual corruption : the intervening
words may perhaps be translated and he will grasp thee forcibly
(or, he will wrap thee up closely), and will entirely wind thee up (or,
make a complete turban of thee) like (or, into) a ball : see phil. n.
The point of the comparison in like a ball into a far-stretching
land has given play to ingenuity : Ki., followed by Del., thinks of
the unending flight of a ball that meets with no obstacles : Du.
38o COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
of Shebna bent backwards head to feet, so that he becomes
defenceless, and can be slung away like a ball. Neither inter-
pretation relates the figure to the main point of vv.^^'^^, which
clearly is that Shebna is to die, not in honour in Palestine, but
in dishonour in Babylon ; note the repeated there in v.^^,
emphatically pointing the contrast to the repeated here of v.^^.
It is very doubtful whether Isaiah used any term meaning ball
here : see phil. n. — And there the chariots of thy glory] i.e. thy
glorious chariots, sc. shall come (Marti), shall be (Jer, RV), ox shall
become inglorious (ST : cp. Ges.). But in any case the clause reads
curiously ; both the special reference to chariots, a symbol of a
man's rank and greatness (Jer ly^s, cp. Ec lo'^), in itself, and still
more the reference to them after the reference to their owner's
death, is suspicious. Far more correspondent to v.^^ would the
words run and with biting irony, if chariots is a corruption
for tomb: and there shall be thy glorious tomb! So Cond. —
19. Shebna will be deposed and his office become vacant for
(vv.20f-) another to fill. Whether this transitional v. is original,
is discussed above. — And I will thrust] the pron. must refer
to Yahweh; cp. vv.^^"^^. — And pul[\ H and he will pull', see
phil. n.
20-23. A prediction of the promotion of Elial^im to
the office vacated by Shebna, and of his glorious
administration. — Shebna is still addressed, but by Yahweh
Himself (ct. vv.^^'^^). — 20. Eliakim the son of HilkiaK] in 36^
occupies the position *held now (v.^*^) by Shebna. — My servant]
20^. — 21. Eliakim will be clothed with the robes of his office,
consisting of a distinctive tunic (n3nD) and sash (t}33X, elsewhere
only in P) : so also the priests were distinguished by special
tunics and sashes, and their accession to office was solemnised
by a ceremonial investiture with these and other distinctive
articles of clothing. Ex 28*- s^^*, Lv S''* ^^. With the insignia,
Eliakim will also receive the authority (ni?SJ'»» : cp. fjK^D, Gn 45^)
of the vacant office ; but exercising it, unlike Shebna, wisely and
well, he will become a father of those whom he governs, the
people of Jerusalem and Judah (cp. i^ n.), in caring for their
needs (cp. 9^ Job 29^^) : even in Gn 45^ father is no mere title ;
Joseph had cared for Pharaoh's interests. — 22. Eliakim will also
receive the key of the house of David^ by which we may again
understand a symbol of his office rather than the actual key
J
XXII. 19-25 3^1
with which the palace was locked; another less probable view
is that the whole is figurative, meaning merely, I will lay the
burden of administering Judah upon him. In any. case, the
phraseology reflects the custom of carrying the long and heavy
keys commonly used over the shoulder. Che. in SBOT (ET),
p. 160, reproduces from Bonomi, Nineveh and its Palaces^ a
picture of a modern Cairene merchant thus carrying his keys.
The authority symbolised is extensive, and includes the command
of the royal chambers and the right to admit to the royal
presence, or to refuse admittance : cp. Mt 16^^, Rev 3^. — 23. By
means of two figures the security of Elial^im in his office, and
the lustre which his position will shed on his entire family, are
expressed. For the figure of the ^^^ which commonly denotes
the tent-pegy but also a peg on which articles may be hung
(Ezk 158), cp. Ezr 98, Zee lo*. Sir 142* (ffi, not J?): also the
Arabic example cited by Ges. from the Life of Timur, when
the pegs {autdd) of Mohammed ibn Mudaffir were firm^ meaning
when his authority was secured ; this illustrates, too, the develop-
ment of the figure here, Elial^im is as secure as a peg driven
into a place that can be trusted to hold. — A glorious throne\ by
no means proves that Eliakim is destined to be king (Fullerton) :
the throne (xba) was not a seat confined to kings ; see especially
2 K 410.
24 f. The peg (v.^s), being misused, falls to the
ground. — The peg here, whatever its meaning in v.^^, is a peg
driven into a wall. The meaning of the figure is clear ; all sorts
of cheap articles are hung upon the peg, till, being altogether
improperly weighted with this motley assortment of goods, not
even the best of holds is of any service, but peg and burden
come tumbling down together in undignified and indiscriminate
ruin : so a governor, a peg of state, if all his relatives insist on
his giving free play to nepotism, is brought at last to ruin. But
is this a prediction that Elial^im will be a gross nepotist and,
in spite of being firmly secured in Shebna's office, himself come
to ruin? That such a prediction was delivered in the same
breath with the prediction of his glory, and in an address to
Shebna, seems incredible ; quite as much so, however, that the
peg of v. 2* refers to a different person from v.^s, viz. to Shebna.
To treat vv.^**^- as a hypothetical — but if Eliakim practises nepot-
ism, he will come to ruin — is an improbable makeshift in spite
382 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
of its abstract grammatical possibility (Kon. iii. 390^) ; there is
too much detail and contemptuous passion in the protasis for
this to bd probable (see, further, p. 37 5 f.)- — All the glory of his
father's house] contemptuously, and perhaps playing on the root
meaning of nU3, all the weightiness of his family. — The rest of
the V. developes the idea of the burdensome family, first by
means of two (?) literal terms for the offspring, or connections,
of a family, and then by terms used figuratively to suit the figure
of the peg. D'*((^i<V, offspring^ is a term elsewhere confined to
Is 34^ 40-66, Job ; see 34^ n. The exact force of nirsv is
doubtful : it may refer either to hangers-on as distinguished
from actual members of the family, or rather to the ignobler
members (see phil. n.). — Least] not in size, for neither bowls (pi<,
Ex 24^, Ca 7^ t) nor pitchers (30^^, Jer 48^2^ were this, but in
value : cp. La 4^. — 25- Ln that day] on which the peg was
overloaded; that the same phrase occurs in v. 20 by no means
necessarily synchronises the two vv., and certainly does not show
that the peg of v.^^ is a different person from the peg of v.^^.
15. mn* »3nN] (&& omit one of these words.— nin] <& om.— ^y . . . ^n]
(& eh . , . irp6t. The repetition of hn would have been normal (G-K. 131^) ;
but the substitution of the stronger prep, ^y is not ; the instances cited in
Kon. 319^ are either doubtful, or not real parallels. — N33B'] (& 116/xvav. The
ending K- (so also 37^* ", but n-, 2 K i8^^' ^) does not prove that Shebna
was a Syrian (or North Arabian: Che. EBi.). Hebrew hypocoristica also
end in n- : cp. »»y, 2 S 6^ ( = m]}, 286^); xnay, Kna, to'D : see Lidzbarski,
Ephemeris, ii. 7ff.; see, further. Addenda. — n'an ^y] <& + Kal eltrbv airrip. —
16. nnpl 3rd pers. after a vocative : cp. 54^ and see G-K. 144^. — 17. n^a^o
'\2i] C KiaaT ^iu'?B, assuming the n to be not the fem., but a case ending.
If the construction were cstr. and gen., it would be better to re-divide,
n33n 7t5'?e, though ffi read naa. The pointing n^a, strong man, is to be preferred
to n^a (MT), though even the latter, according to a Rabbinical explanation,
implied a violent hurling, because a man is stronger than a woman ! see
Rashi. — loyi] nowhere else in Heb. has nuy {/o be enveloped, to wrap oneself,
e.g. 59") a trans, force; but Lane cites in Arabic ^IxiJ' iU2.c, young
manhood clad him. So possibly ^Xi'^ ^By1 means and he will surely enwrap
thee, and is more or less synonymous with the next clause. Or possibly n»y
here is from another root ; cp. liis, viii., to take (with the hands) : then
render, he will surely grasp thee (Ges., al.). — 18. nn3 nsas isas' f]i3s] (K koX rhv
<Trk^a.vbv GOV rhv ?v5o^ov Kal pl\}/ei. <t€ : the last clause (cp. 'B et 7nittet te) has
influenced EV, which inserts without any warrant in p^ and toss thee, nsj^,
like n'rtsSts, is most probably a mere addiUonal strengthening of the verbal
idea ; others take it as an ace. of product, will wind thee into something
XXII. 15-25, XXIII. 383
wound. The vb. »)35t occurs but once elsewhere, in Lv 16*, and there means
to wind round {the head), to put on (the turban) ; otherwise the root in Heb.
is confined to nouns meaning turban {e.g. 3^ 62'). Whether, as is commonly
assumed, ^^^ meant to roll up as well as to wind round, is not quite certain.
3r seems to give the vb. first a privative sense and then the meaning to sur-
round : it renders he will take away from thee the turban, and enemies shall
surround thee. — ina] SU anticipated mediaeval Jewish and modern interpreters
in extracting the meaning ball from this word ; but it is disputed whether 3
is radical and ^^^^ a comparatio decurtata, or whether nn is the noun and f
the particle. "Wns, ball, occurs in NH and Aramaic (Levy, NHWB ii. 295 f.);
the comparison of the Assyr. kudHru, circle, boundary (cp. 29*), does not
increase the probability that nna in the age of Isaiah meant ball. It is quite
as questionable whether on the strength of this passage alone, where the point
of comparison with a ball is anything but obvious, we ought to infer that ^n,
period, circle (of time), also meant ball: see, further, BDB 189^, 462a with
references. — nor] it is unnecessary to take this pregnantly, thither (coming)
thou shall die\ for nDB' = De', cp. Gn 43^, Jos 2} ; BDB 1027^. — maano notri
iniaa] koX 6-^<r€i rb dp/xa <rov rh KoXbv, which Cond. claims as supporting aaTD,
an intermediate step to an original nap (see above). Possibly niaano is
an error for (n)a3B'D dwelling - place{s), in the sense of tomb (cp. 57',
Ezk 32^). — 19. lonn'i . . . Tnuim] the change of pers. is precariously
defended by reference to 10^ (Di-) ; see, further, G-K. 144/: Konig,
Stilistik, 248 ff. : on 3^-* see n. on 3*. (& does not render the 2nd vb. ;
tZr = |§; &TB read both vbs. in the 1st pers. 'and k not infrequently are
confused ; and it is certainly easier to emend the 2nd vb. to lonrtNi than with
Cond. the ist vb. to Tsnm. — 21. iiehvrxi] nWoD is used from the end of the 7th
cent, onwards; see Cheyne, Introd. 137 n. — 24. niysit] some ignoble flavour
may attach to the word, if it is from the same root as ysx, ^Jl^ (Ges.),
which gives (D)'y'fl:<, dung, Ezk 4'°, and «-&«i with the same meaning. If
not from this root (BDB), it is from one of unknown meaning. — lepn '^a]
superlative : G-K. 133A, and (on pp a neuter subst. in the gen.) I28w.
XXIIL— 7%tf Oracle of Tyre.
This consists of a poem, vv.^*^*, on the ruin of Phoenicia,
and a prose appendix, vv.^^'^^, predicting the restoration of the
commercial prosperity of Tyre.
1-14. — The Ruin of Phoenicia.
The text is too uncertain to make a detailed analysis of the rhythm useful.
Some of the distichs are clearly 3 : 2. Parallelism is as frequently absent as
present. The poem is divided into three nearly equal strophes, by some-
thing resembling an initial refrain.
384
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
1.
1 Howl ! ye ships of Tarshish,
For ' your fortress ' has been spoiled !
. , . from the land of Kittim it was revealed to them.
2 Be astounded, ye inhabitants of the coast,
Merchants of Sidon,
2c Who passed over the sea (?)
' Whose messengers ^ were ' on many waters,
' Whose ' harvest a was the seed of Shihor,
Whose revenue a the traffic with the nations
^ Be ashamed, O Sidon, . . . saying,
"I have not travailed, nor brought forth;
And I have not brought up youths,
Nor reared virgins."
' When the rumour (comes) to E^ypt,
They will travail 'for' Tyre.
2.
^ Pass over to Tarshish, howl !
Ye inhabitants of the coast.
■^ Is this your (city ever-) exultant,
From the days of old,
Whose feet in olden time did carry her,
Afar off to sojourn?
^ Who hath planned this.
Against Tyre the crowned (city).
Whose merchants were princes.
Whose traders, the honoured of the world?
* Yahweh of Hosts hath planned it,
To profane (what was their) pride (?),
All beauty to dishonour,
All the honoured of the world.
^^ . . ., ' ye ships ' of Tarshish,
There is no girdle (?) more.
^^ His hand hath he stretched out against the sea,
He hath made kingdoms quake.
Yahweh hath commanded touching Canaan,
To destroy her fortresses.
XXIII. I-I4 3^5
^' And he said, Thou shalt no morc exult,
Thou oppressed daughter of Sidon !
Arise, pass over to Kiltim :
There, too, thou shalt have no rest.^^ a a
1* Howl ! ye ships of Tarshish,
For your fortress has been spoiled.
The poem opens and closes with the same distich, in which
the Phoenician mariners are summoned to lament for the de-
struction of their "fortress." The first strophe extends this
appeal to the inhabitants of Phoenicia generally, especially the
Phoenician merchants. In the second strophe the Phoenicians
are bidden to pass over to Tarshish, and told that the humilia-
tion of Tyre, the home of merchant princes and the city of
ancient seafaring fame, has been decreed by Yahweh. The
third strophe asserts that Yahweh has also given the word for
the destruction of other Phoenician fortresses, and has rendered
the Phoenician colonies insecure. In particular, Cyprus will be
unable to give asylum to the Phoenicians retreating from their
ruined homes. Other details filled out the poem in its original
form, but the insecurity of the text has left them uncertain or
obscure.
Opinions differ greatly as to the occasion and exact subject
of the poem. In v.^, and even in v.*, Sidon may mean Phoenicia
(v.2 n.) ; but v.^^ should refer to the fall of the city of Sidon, and
vv.^^' to the ruin of Tyre. It is true that the two names Tyre and
Sidon as written in Phoenician inscriptions (iv, H^)) and doubt-
less also in the earliest stages of the text of the OT, must have
been liable to confusion. Possibly, therefore. Tyre in v.^ (and ^)
is a miswritten Sidon, or Sidon in vv.^"* a miswritten Tyre; in
which case the original subject of the poem may have been ex-
clusively Sidon (Du.), or exclusively Tyre. The authors of the
title and appendix certainly understood the poem to refer to Tyre,
but whether exclusively or not is uncertain; as in 17^ the title
may refer to one only of two subjects of the poem that follows.
We cannot, then, with any assurance attempt to date the
poem by considering which of the many sieges of Tyre or Sidon
most answers to the details here given ; as a matter of fact, these
details are too general or too uncertain to point decisively to any
particular siege.
VOL. I. — 25
386 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Nor is it wise to draw conclusions from the doubtful and
unintelligible reference to the Chaldaeans (or any name conjec-
turally substituted for this) in v.^^
Nor, again, do language (except in v. ^3) and ideas point
clearly to any known writer, or to any particular period. The
vocabulary, naturally enough, contains words and phrases used
by Isaiah ; and others that do not occur in his extant writings ;
for details, see Di. or Cheyne, Introd. p. 142 ; but observe that
the words and phrases cited as used by Isaiah are, with one
or two insignificant exceptions, not peculiar to Isaiah, or even
particularly characteristic of him ; and they occur also in later
writers (so, e.g.^ ^];\ vv.^^- ; n^ niD3, v.^^).
Some theories of date may be briefly referred to — i. Dates within the life-
time of Isaiah. — [a) Some, guided mainly by the supposed reference in v.*'
to a destructive attack of Assyria on Babylon, place the prophecy near one
of the years 709, 703, 696 B.C., in all of which Babylonia was ravaged by the
Assyrians. On the last of these occasions Sennacherib says of Babylon,
" The city and houses from its foundation to the upper chambers I destroyed,
I dug up, in the fire I burnt " {^RP ix. 28). But any argument as to the
date of the poem based on v.^*is very precarious (see on v.^^) ; moreover,
none of these years synchronises with any known disaster to Tyre, though
Sidon suffered in 701 from Sennacherib, who at that time dethroned Luli,
king of Sidon. {b) A more adequate occasion for the poem is the long siege
to which Tyre was subjected by Shalmaneser (727-722 B.C.). According
to Menander (in Jos. Ant. ix. 14^), the Assyrians ravaged the whole of
Phoenicia ; the other cities submitted, but Tyre held out and endured a five
years' siege. If this is the occasion of the poem, it does not describe an actual
destruction of Tyre, but merely predicts a destruction of the city which did not
occur. This view is defended by Cheyne in Introd. p. 144 ; earlier {PI)
he had adopted [a) ; later he abandoned both [EBi. 2197) in favour of the
theory that the poem relates to a conquest of ni:fD (so read for nx and JTk) at
some undefined date {Crit. Bib. 28). — ii. Dates later than Isaiah. — Merely
noting that Esarhaddon made Sidon ** like the ground" in 678 (Rogers, Hist.
of Bab. and Assyria, ii. 224), and blockaded Tyre in 672 (Rogers, ii. 226),
and that Asshurbanipal subsequently (Rogers, 255) conquered though he
did not destroy the city, we come to the long siege of Tyre in 585-573, for
which see Jos. Ant. x. 11^, c. Ap. i. 21, and cp. the predictions in Jer 27^,
Ezk 26-28 ; see also Rogers, ii. 336 ff. In this siege some have found the
occasion, or the subject, of the poem (cp. e.g. Kon. Etnl. 320). But once
again it can only be the subjectj if the poem is a prediction unjustified by
events : Tyre was not destroyed, cp. Ezk 29"^*, written in 570 B.C. The
earliest capture of Tyre known to history, the earliest event, therefore, of
which this poem can be a description, is the capture of the city by Alexander
the Great: see Arrian, ii. 16-24, and cp. e.g. Holm, Hist, of Greece, iii. 331-
333, 337. Du. and Marti, who consider Sidon to be the subject of the poem,
XXIII. 1-5 387
find the occasion of it in the destruction of Sidon by Artaxerxes Ochus in
348 B.C.
1-5. First strophe, — la. b. Cp. v.^* ; the difference between
the two occurrences of the distich in f^ EV is due to textual
corruption : see phil. n. — Ships of TarshisK\ 2^** n. ; here ships
actually returning from far distant Tarshish (in Spain ?) are meant ;
for recent arguments that Tarshish lay not in Spain but on the
Persian gulf, see Hiising in Memnon, i. 70-79 ; cp. R, von
Lichtenberg, Einfliisse der dgdischen Kultur {i^ii)y p. 30. — ic.
From the land of Kittitn\ i.e. Cyprus : Kitti i^TO) frequently
mentioned in Phoenician inscriptions, was strictly the name of
a town in Cyprus (Gr. Kition) ; cp. Nu 24** n. Cyprus would
be the last stage on the way from Spain to Phoenicia; here,
according to this line, which reads like a gloss (note the 3rd pers.,
and ct. the 2nd in vv.^*- (**• ^^^)), the crews of the returning ships
hear of the disaster. The phrase is preceded in f^ by KUD,
which may be a corrupt dittograph of n^3D; MT accents and
EV connect it with v.^^ (corrupt), {for it is spoiled^ so that there is
no house)y no entering in. It has been recently rendered since
leaving the land of Kittim^ and assumed to imply that the news
was heard not while the ships were touching at Cyprus, but by
signals from passing ships or otherwise, between Cyprus and the
Phoenician coast. This is most uncertain ; K13 normally means
to enter in^ arrive^ not to go out from, leave, — 2, Be astounded]
lit. be dumb, with grief or astonishment; cp. La 2^®, Ex 15^* : see
also phil. n. It is no doubt a formal inconsistency, but scarcely a
rhetorical impossibility, to call on the same persons to be dumb
and to howl (v.*). — The coast"] Phoenicia, rather than either the
island on which Tyre stood, or collectively the islands or coasts
(11^^ n.) of the Mediterranean. See also 20' n. — Merchants of
Sidon] merchants of the city of Sidon, or more widely Phoenician
merchants ; so Sidonians are Phoenicians in Dt 3^, Jg 3^, i K 168I ;
in Greek, too (//. vi. 290), and Assyrian ; and later in Phoenician
itself Tyre is called D''3nv DN, metropolis of the Sidonians ; see EBi.
s.v. Sidon. — 2C, 3. Very uncertain: see phil. n. MT may be
rendered : — ^^ The merchants of Sidon, '^ the traversers of the sea
did fill thee (fem.). ^ And on many waters the seed of Shihor, the
harvest of the Nile, was her revenue: and it (the revenue), or she
(the coast : elsewhere masc), was the merchandise of nations. But
(i) this implies that the passage is unrhythmical ; (2) the waters are
388
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
K
an unnatural place for revenue ; (3) the last clause is obviously
unsuitable : RV tra'aslates unjustifiably mart (ct. v.^^) 0/ nations.
— TAe seed of Shi^or] the identification of Shihor with the Nile
(cp. Jer 2^^) is found in U, and has been commonly accepted ;
but it was not admitted by (& either here or in Jer 2^^, and it has
recently been disputed ; Du., who with ffi omits "JN"', of the Nile
(19^ n.), identifies Shihor with the Shihor-hbnath in Asher
(Jos 19^^), which district he considers actually did supply Sidon
with corn (cp. Gn 49^0, Ezk 27^^). For other views, see Che. in
EBL s.v. Shihor. That the Phoenician cities drew on Egypt *
as well as on the Palestinian hinterland for their corn supply, is
certainly probable, and an allusion to a remoter source would be
rhetorically more effective. Even if the Nile be a gloss, it shows
that a reference to Egypt was early detected here. — 4c. d is an
excellent 3 : 2 distich, and its meaning is clear ; but the preceding
part of the v. is too long for one distich, too short for two.
Difficulties of interpretation make it additionally probable that
the text of 4a. b is in disorder, and it must remain doubtful
whether Sidon, Tyre, or the Sea is the childless woman. If the
text of ?^ is retained, Be ashamed^ O Sidon, for the sea hath said,
the fortress of the sea, saying, etc., nothing better can be suggested
than Di.'s sufficiently improbable interpretation : Sidon, i.e.
Phoenicia (as in v. 2), is to be ashamed, i.e. disappointed in her
hopes, because the sea, or more precisely the fortress (v.^* : cp.
v.^ n.) of the sea, i.e. Tyre, has had to confess the loss of her
children in battle, or by capture. Even more improbable is this
interpretation, if the fortress of the sea be identified with Sidon : —
be ashamed Sidon, for Sidon hath said ! By following up a
suggestion of Olsh., and omitting the words the fortress of the
sea, saying, as a gloss, Du. obtains a more attractive meaning
and a rather poor 4 : 2 line : Sidon is to be ashamed, for the
sea has become childless, and the sea is poetically regarded as
the mother of the Sidonians : if this be correct, there may be
traces here of an old myth according to which gods and men
sprang from the sea. By less extensive conjecture it is possible
to obtain a good distich; omit ^D with ffi and read D"»"i[y] DN
instead of Dnojc, and render.
Be ashamed, O Sidon, mother of cities,
Fortress of the sea.
* Cp. W. Max Muller, Asien u. Ruropa^ p. 359,
XXIII. 1-9 3^9
For mother of cities^ cp. 2 S 20^*^; G. A. Cooke, NSI^ p. 352.
Still even this is uncertain. — / have not travailed nor brought
fortK\ a city robbed of its population is said by a rhetorical
exaggeration not even to have had children : cp. 54' of §ion ; cp.
also 49^^ — Brought up , . . reared\ i^ n. — 5. Whether a gloss
(Du.) or not, the v. is very awkwardly expressed and seems
prosaic : it is certainly not a normal 3 : 2 line. It is commonly
supposed to mean that the fall of Tyre will be ominous for
Egypt, who will be distressed when the news is received.
I. 1^'V'n] the masc. could be explained as a cstr. ad sensum, but at the end
of the V. (") ihe fern, suffix (p-) is used. Cp. G-K. iio/t. — inv] 15^ — n'3D]
cp. G-K. II9J/; but the word is really a corruption of jaiyo ; (5 Kal ovk^ti
= I><''yi ; Che. unnecessarily substitutes pino, your haven (Ps 107**) for piyo. —
K13D] (& perhaps read Qk? ; but the omission of a subject makes it difficult to
treat this as original and explain by Dr. §§ 167, 169. — rhii] ity viz. the over-
throw of the stronghold, has been revealed: G-K. 1443. The prosaic, and
probably unrhythmical, character of the line raises the suspicion that the line
is a gloss (Olsh., Di., Che.), id*? occurs in Is only in 30*, and then is
doubtful ; it was misread by (K, 'D*?. For nVjJ, (K seems to have read rhi K3.
— 2. lan] imperative ; it might also be pointed lai, pf. (cp. (5). It is hardly
necessary, out of regard to v.' (see above), to suppose a unique occurrence of
DDi, to wailf cp. Assyr. damamu with that meaning (see BDB) : or to emend
to 1D13 (Che., Marti) which follows tw in 15^ or isn (Du.). — pTJ« ino] these
words may be safely taken, against the accentuation of MT, as the synonymous
parallel to 'K 'ar*, the 2nd part of the 3 : 2 distich characteristically echoing
the first. The words that follow are certainly more or less corrupt : ffi is not
improbably nearer the original text in virtue of the absence from it of tik',
possibly a gloss on nnr, and 'nni, probably a corrupt dittography of nnK[i3n].
(Sr further differs from |^ in omitting 1 "PkSd and inserting ws (? 1D3, or simply
d) between ^^8' (read as nno) and Tifp ; but elatpepofx^vov corresponds nearly,
if not exactly, to nnxiDn. Du. follows (JEr in omitting niK' and 'nm : he also
reads D'D3 12x^5 for D'D31 timVd (SCF omit the "> before Q'D3), n»xp for Txp,
and would point nriNun instead of nciKun. Neither of the two lines thus
obtained is 3 : 2 ; the first is 2 : 3 (an occasional variant on 3 : 2), and the
second 3 : 3. — 4. '3] dSc omits. — 5* J'^^l ^^^ ^^^ awkward occurrence of a noun
after nt^Ka, cp. 26'. Gratz, al. read y-?^: : then cp. Neh 6^ for the construction.
— njf j;D85'3] ffi irepl TOpov. If |§ is correct and 3 is really = a/ fhe time o/(iS*
28^ 30^* ; Di. ; BDB, p. 454^), the v. is most awkwardly expressed : — when
the report comes . . . they will be in travail at the time of the report, RV
sorely pained at would require '3SD ; cp. Dt 2^, Jer ^.
6-9. Second strophe. — Now that Tyre, their ancient, proud,
and famous capital, has fallen by the decree of Yahweh, let the
Phoenicians of the Palestinian coast-land flee lamenting to Spain,
390 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
taking passage in the ships that have come thence (v.^) — yet
only to be turned back again from the haven that is no more
(v.^^). — 7« The question rhetorically points the contrast between
then and now; cp. 14^^, La 2^^. — Exultani\ 22^ 32^3^ cp. v.^^
below. — Since the days of old] the antiquity of Tyre was consider-
able, though, according to later testimony (Strabo, xvi. 2, 22),
reputed less than that of Sidon. The priests of Tyre told
Herodotus (ii. 44) that "it was a period of 2300 years since their
people began to live at Tyre." The actual age of Tyre may
have been considerably less (cp. e.g. EBi. 3732), but the writer
here appeals not to fact but to fame. So, too, the actual
antiquity of the Phoenician colonies or trading stations to which
v.*^ refers, unlike the fame of them (cp. Herod, i. i), may not
have been very great; Meyer {EBi. 3736) asserts that in the
time of the Amarna tablets {c, 1400 b.c.) there were no
Phoenician colonies. The term to sojourn (nj, 142 n.) corre-
sponds well to the character of these settlements, and the
connection of them with Tyre to the generally current theory :
"all the Phoenician colonies were anciently regarded as having
been founded from Tyre ; and, so far as the towns of Cyprus and
North Africa are concerned, this is confirmed by all our other
information. It cannot be shown that any other of the
Phoenician towns planted colonies " (Meyer, EBi. STSj). —
Whose feet did carry her\ The expression is curiously chosen for
the sea-voyages of the Phoenicians ; but the meaning flag for
hT\ is far too uncertain (Nu 2^ n.) to render Bredenkamp's easy
conjectural emendation (rivH for HvJl), whose flags did carry her^
probable. Nor can it mean her feet will carry her into captivity ;
for the vb. nia in the next clause is unfavourable to this, and
even ^'•lin (ct. 2 K 21^). — 8, 9. Question and answer, as in
Ps 24^^- ^- 1^. — 8. Is Tyre, the home of merchant princes, called
the crowning (ST) city, as one that founded small kingdoms, or
as the city that sent a golden crown to the advancing Alexander ;
or the crowned (SU) city, as the city which at the time was
supreme over the Phoenician cities? 5^ certainly means the
crownings fl^^ may have been ambiguous (mtDyon). — Whose
traders] 2^ n. ^ omits this, or whose merchants. — 9. The
answer to v.^ ; it is Yahweh who has planned the disgrace of
Tyre. The v. has probably suffered some disarrangement ; see
phil. n. — Pride . . . beauty] ^ 13^^ 6o^^
xxm. 7-1 1 391
7. 03^] ethic, dat., rather than {Is this what has happened) to you (Del.)* —
nv^V] anarthrous voc. : G-K. I26z, n. — onp 'D'D] ^^^, — nnonp] is commonly
given the sense oi origin (cp. 'Cip, Pr 8^*) and taken with onp 'D*D ; but the
V. gives two better echoing lines if it is taken with mSa', either as a form like
nnyiB" (G-K. 90^), in ancient time^ or pointed ?i{«?")p, in her antiquity. — 9. If
the V. consists of two 3 : 2 distichs, the first should end at pKj ; but this leaves
jiKJ rather awkwardly undefined ; 'ax '?3 is also rather awkwardly placed, yet
if we transpose '3Jt Va hprh (Che.) we make the antithetic terms h;>T\^ and n333
remote from one another. pK naaa h2 hprh looks like the first part of a
3:2 distich.
10-14. Third strophe. — Let the ships from Spain return
home (?) ; the ruin of Phoenicia is irremediable, for it has come
to pass by Yahweh's decree. The ruin extends as far W. as
Cyprus. — 10. 1^ and (R differ, and probably neither entirely
preserves the original sense. J^ may be rendered, Pass through^
(Dt 2^^) or overflow (8^), or pass over to (v.®, Am 6^), thy land^
like the Nile^ O daughter (i^ n.) of Tarshish : there is no more a
girdle (nTD, Ps 109^* f ; = n"'TD, Job 1221). This has been explained
as meaning that the harsh dominion of Tyre over her colonies,
typically represented by distant and important Tarshish, has with
the fall of Tyre come to an end, and the inhabitants of these
colonies may now walk through the length and breadth of their
land (cp. Gn 13^''^) as the independent owners of it. But, not to
mention other difficulties, the last clause cannot imply release
from servitude; the girdle is no mark of bondage: but its
removal is a mark of defencelessness (Job 12^^); so, freely but
correctly, Symm. rendered, Jerome approving, you will no longer
be able to resist. (3K read. Till thy land: for indeed ships come no
more from Tarshish, Originally the line resembled v.^, or v.*, or
both, more closely than it does now; see phil. n. — ii, 12.
Phoenicia is undone ; for Yahweh has decreed the destruction of
all the fortresses along the Palestinian seaboard, and He has
threatened and shaken all the Phoenician colonies scattered over
the Mediterranean. Consequently the inhabitants of Sidon
after the fall of the city will in vain cross over to Cyprus ; the
colonies there will have suffered likewise, and will furnish no
resting place to the fugitive Sidonians. — II. V.^^ ^ and '^'^^' ^ have
perhaps been transposed : the named subject Yahweh first
appears v.^^® ; and the threatening of the colonies in J^ precedes
the threatening of Phoenicia proper. — His hand hath he stretched
out] 525 : also in later writers, e.g. Zeph i*, Ex 7^ (P). — /fe hath
392 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
made . . . quake\ used of the earth 14^^, of the heavens 13^^ ;
the Kal is used of the effect of Yahweh's manifestation on
peoples (64^). — Kingdoms] as the term is appHed to parts of
Egypt in 19^, so here to the various Phoenician city-states
which were governed by their own kings. Phoenician inscrip-
tions speak of a king of Gebal {CIS'i. i), a king of Kition and
IdaHcn (e.g. CIS i. 11^), as well as of a king of the Sidonians
(e.g. CIS i. 3); see Cooke, NSI, p. 116. — 11. Canaan]
Phoenicia ; the usage, found in Phoenician (Cooke, NSI 350),
does not occur again in the OT ; but note Jos 5^ ^3J?33n ^ai^o, ffi
ot ySatrtXcts 7^9 ^oLvUrj^. — 12. And he said] probably this is a
gloss, and this v., like the rest of the poem, was the speech of
the poet. — £xuit] cp. "exultant," \J. — Daughter of Stdon]
rhythm favours this, the reading of ffi, as against f^, Virgin
daughter (i^ n.) of Sidon. This being so, no sufficient reason
remains for giving T\\>'^'^'0'T\ the otherwise unknown nuance
deflowered; the antithesis is rather between the exulting, domi-
neering, wealthy city of the past, and the ruined people of the
present, who must suffer the harsh treatment commonly
measured out to the poor and helpless ; cp. the use of pcy in
52*, Dt 2829-33. — According to the analogy of similar phrases,
daughter of Sidon should mean the population of the city of
Sidon ; it is very questionable to make it mean Phoenicians in
general, or Tyre, as being the daughter city of Sidon. — Pass over]
v.^. — To Kittim] Cyprus, v.^ — 13. This v. as a whole, and
especially in its context, is quite unintelligible ; it is, moreover,
not in the 3 : 2 rhythm which appears in, or may underlie, the
remainder of vv.^"^*, though the last two words, He hath made it
(Cyprus? Tyre? Sidon ?) a ruin, might be the second and shorter
half of such a distich. Attempts to interpret the v. fall into
two classes : (i) those which read into the present awkward text
meanings which are not there; (2) those which conjecturally
correct the text, or omit parts of it, as glosses. It would be easy
to hazard fresh guesses of this type, but, as they would be as
unconvincing as those which have been offered, it must suffice
to refer to one or two explanations of each type that have
already been offered, fflr finds in \P an alternative to v.^^ . how
far its text was different from J^, and how far it is merely
paraphrastic, it is difficult to say ; in ffi, ^^b-is x\xx\% thus, and
if thou goest to the Cypriotes, neither there shalt there be rest for
XXIII. II-I3 393
thee^ ^8 and {if) to the land of the ChaldaeanSy that^ too^ has been
laid waste by the Assyrians^ its wall has fallen. In what follows
the italicised words represent the actual literal rendering of J^,
the rest, the meanings read in by interpreters in order to create
some intelligibility : — Behold the land of the Chaldaeans ; this is
the people which until recently was not of any account; Assyria
founded it, i.e. the land of Chaldaea, for the Chaldaeans, who
had hitherto been inhabitants of the desert (1321 n.); they, the
Chaldaeans, set up his, viz. the Chaldaeans' watch-towers (32^* n.),
they have laid bare the foundations of its (Tyre's) palaces ; he,
(the Chaldaeans) hath made it a ruin. The point of all this is
supposed to be : Tyre will be destroyed by the Chaldaeans ; so
Lowth, Ges., and others; but the interpretation labours under
historical, as well as stylistic, improbabilities; the Chaldaeans
were settled in Babylon at least as early as 900 b.c. and
probably centuries earlier, and, therefore, even if it were a proved
fact, and not merely an unsupported and improbable inference
from this passage, that it was the Assyrians who settled the
Chaldaeans in Babylon, it was no recent event even in the days
of Isaiah. Others would make the v. mean Chaldaea has already
destroyed Assyria, i.e. Nineveh (607 b.c,), and will destroy
Tyre ; by assuming that ilK'K is a casus pendens, and straining
the meaning of ID*, which means to found creatively (so even
Ps 1048), the crucial clause for this interpretation is rendered,
/V, viz. Chaldaea, has appointed Assyria for desert-beasts, i.e. for
destruction (cp. Mai i^) ; so at one time Del., reviving a sugges-
tion of Paulus mentioned by Ges. Others {e.g. RV) with rather
less improbability give this clause the opposite meaning : Assyria
has destroyed Chaldaea (in 709 ? or 703? or 696 B.C.). A further
objection to both these interpretations is that the remainder of
the V. can then only naturally be taken to refer to the fall of
Babylon, and thus the v. falls entirely out of relation to a poem
on the fall of Tyre. Ew. conjecturally substituted Canaanites,
i.e. Phoenicians (v.^^ n.), for Chaldaeans ; but this necessitates
retaining the questionable sense appointed for ID**, and giving
.Tn \^ the very questionable meaning is no more (RV). It has
been suggested that the words "iik^K HM ^?^ Dvn n?, this is the
people, it was not Assyria, are an annotation that has intruded
into the text, drawing attention to the fact that Chaldaea and
not Assyria destroyed Tyre : cp. Cond., Che. {Introd. p. 140),
394 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
but see Dr. Isatah\ 219. Du. extracts from the v. the following
distich :
Behold the land of Kittim,
He hath made it a ruin —
the point of which is that there will be no rest for Cyprus, for
Cyprus, too, is in ruins. The rest of the v. on this theory is a
note on Kittim ; by the help of some emendations the note is
restored as follows : This is the people which were a foundation^
i.e. a colony, of the seafarers who set up its watch-towers^ its cities^
and its palaces 'y very doubtful. — 14. See on v.^
10. B'^B'nn nn nxo isin nay] ffi ipyd^^ov r^v yrjv <rov /cal ycLp TrXoia . . .
ix KapxvS6vos = vvwi nviti '3 isnK 'nay ; from |^ and dSc we might conjecture
viff-[n nvjN psn« nny ; but this, like both f^ and fflr, seems over-long for the
first line of a distich. Perhaps JfiK nay is a dittograph of px n33[3] at the
end of v.* ; and the original opening of v.'** was 'n nrjN id3, IVeep, ye ships of
T. (cp. V.*) ; see Du., Marti.— niD] an error for lyo (vv."' ^*) ? or for ThD, if this
meant haven'i — II. m.T] ®r + <ra/3aw^. — TDr'?] 38 n. — n'3TyD] the 3 is an error
rather than a resolution of the reduplicated T (G-K. 200). — 12. r\'^v>'<ir:ir\\ the
attributive is prefixed for emphasis : cp. 22^. — nSinn] ®r om. — pi'Jf] some MvSS
\Vi ; an obvious error. — D^na] cannot be a vocative ; but the name of the
people is used for the country : cp. r\'a''^v:^^ Ezk 11^. But in v.*^ 'a px is
used. — 13. Q'^if'3 pN] Kleinert, Bredenkamp, DntfS p« (cp. Gn 14') ; Ges-B.
{vielleicht) nijB' ^ynx ; Marti tdbti D'n3 pw, which would give a good parallel
to rhixh HDB', if all that intervenes is a gloss. — uvn ni] scarcely this people ^
in spite of Ex 32^, i K 14", Ps 104^ (BDB, loob) ; but this is the people^
which certainly reads like the beginning of a gloss. Marti, following up Du.'s
suggestion, restores the gloss as follows : — (or D'otj^V) D"j«S mio' nt^N Dyn ni
vnamNi vny vjnn iD'pn ; but mio' ib'n would be odd Hebrew, the meanings
settlement for miD' and seafarers for D"J£ questionable, and the very rare
word jn3 unlikely in a gloss. — Ti''7\ vh'\ according to MT accents this means
was not, did not exist : cp. BDB, s.v. r\''n, iii. i ; but is no more would be
expressed by means of px and niy. In a late gloss nwK rx'^n k^ might mean
it was not Assyria : cp. the use of n'n in 2 Ch 18^2 (cj-^ j k 22^). — ^I'^'D?]
K^tib ; V^in3, K®re ; neither form occurs again unless jn?, 32^*!, should be
pointed jn? or jns. — miy] Pol' el of nny, here only; cp. Kal 32", Pilpel and
Hithp. Jer 51^.— n^SD] 17I n.
XXIII. 15-18. — The Restoration of Tyre for the benefit of
the Jews.
This appendix was not necessarily, nor even probably, written
by the author of the poem in vv.^'^*. It is prose, not poetry ;
predictive, not descriptive. It was written, presumably, while
the ruin, which w.^'^* describe, still continued, and after rather
XXIII. lo-is 395
than before the Exile ; for note the ideas in v.^^ and the probable
indebtedness of the writer to Jer 25^^'- and Ezk, chs. 26-28.
See, further, Che. Introd. 138 f.
In the following translation the ditty (2 : 2 : 2 || 2 : 2 : 2) cited
in v.^* is given, at the expense of one or two departures from
literal rendering, in a rhymed version, in order to bring out its
difference from its prose setting :
^^ And it will come to pass in that day that Tyre will be
forgotten for 70 years, like the days of one king. At the end of
70 years Tyre wiU be like the harlot in the song :
1^ Take thou the lyre.
Walk with the throng,
Harlot whom all forget;
Play, play with fire,
Sing oft (thy) song,
To be remembered (yet).
I'' And it shall come to pass at the end of 70 years, Yahweh
will visit Tyre, and she shall return to her hire, and play the
harlot with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the
earth. ^^ And her gain and her hire shall be a sacred gift to
Yahweh : it shall not be stored up, nor treasured, but her gain
shall belong to them that sit before Yahweh for food in
abundance and for stately clothing.
15. Shall be forgotten^ and so lose her trade : cp. v}^. —
Seventy years] are (a) the normal term of human life, Ps 90^^ ;
(d) the length, according to expectation or conventional reckon-
ing, of the Jewish captivity in Babylon, Jer 25^1^- 29!^^, Zee 1^2 >j5^
Dn g'^^', 2 Ch 36^^ — As the days of one king] various explanations,
none very satisfactory, have been offered of this phrase ; it has
been said to mean the full span of human life (Ges., cp. ffi), or
full years, measured liberally as befits a king, in contrast to the
" years of a hireling" (16^* 2i^<'; Eich.), or a period free from
change (Del., Di.), or the duration of a dynasty (cp. Dn 7!^)^
whether that of Nebuchadnezzar (Ibn Ezra), or of Alexander
and his Ptolemaic successors (Du., Marti). On the last theory,
allusion is made to the fact that Tyre was eclipsed by the
foundation of Alexandria ; Tyre's prosperity returned when
Phoenicia passed from the dominion of the Ptolemies to that
396
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
of the Seleucids. — At the end of seventy years] these words have
perhaps intruded here from v.^''^; if they stand, vv.^^^- ^^ and v.^'^
are synchronous, which is scarcely suggested by the opening of
v.^'^, or else the writer had in view two successive periods of
seventy years, which is improbable. — 16. The song is rather
some popular ditty cited by the writer than one specially com-
posed by himself (Di.). The ditty is sarcastic, for obviously
the worn-out and discarded harlot would not win much success
by her wiles ; Tyre is to be restored not by her own artifices,
but (v.^'^) by Yahweh's favour. The conduct described in
j^a. d. c corresponds more to that of the Ghawazee of Modern
Egypt (Lane, Mod. Egyptians^ ch. xix.) than to what is elsewhere
said of harlots in the OT. The 1133, lyre, appears elsewhere
as an instrument of dissolute music, 5^2^ — Walk with the
throng] lit. go about in (320, as Ca 3^) the city. — Flay thou with
fire] more lit. play skilfully , play your best: cp. i S 16^'^,
Ezk 33^2, Ps 33^ — 17. Will visit] with favour: cp. Jer 29^^
Yahweh will restore the commercial prosperity of Tyre; the
figure by means of which this is expressed is suggested by
v.^^; cp. Apoc. 18^, where, rather more naturally in a minatory
context, trading and harlotry (figuratively) are closely connected.
Even in figure it is surprising to find the harlofs price (pnx)
made a gift to Yahweh; ct. Dt 23^®. — 18. Gain] from trade;
cp. v.^ n. — Hire] synonymous with gain, but implying the figure
of v.^^. — A sacred gift] KHp, as Jos 6^^. The gains from trade
will no longer be stored up (Zee 9^) by Tyre for her own use,
but will be paid into Yahweh's coffers, whence it will be given
over by Him to them that sit before Him, i.e. the priestly nation
of the Jews (6i^^-). The thought that the wealth of the nations
will flow into the restored Jewish state is frequent in exilic and
post-exilic literature : see 45^* 4922f. 6o^' ^-^^^ Hag 2^^'
15. nnDB'Ji] it is scarcely possible that this is a part. (G-K. 44/, 1 16/;
Dr. § 159) ; not only should a pf. with waw conv. naturally follow .Tm, but
if nnatyj were a part. nj£ should naturally precede it (Dr. 135 (4)). Unless
nn3B':i should be read, it is a form like rhm (Dt 32^), preserving the original
n of the fem. — 17. njanx] the suffix is here written with he raphe; ct. v.^^ —
JDH'] the vb. here only in Heb. ; cp. the noun }cin, 33^ etc. In Aramaic
(e.g. Dn 7^ Haph.) the vb. means to take possession of. — p'ny] here only;
for the sense, choice^ surpassing, attaching to the root and its derivatives,
cp. pOV in Pr 8^^ and ^jSs. oi what precedes ^ and so \s choice.
XXIII. 1 6-1 8, XXIV.-XXVII. 397
XXIV.-XXVII.— ^« Apocalypse of Judgment on the World,
and of YahweKs reign and glory.
Special Literature : — R. Smend, in ZATIV^ 1884, pp. 161-224 J H. Oort,
in Th. Tt., 1886, pp. 166-194; E. Liebmann, " Der Text zu Jesaia 24-27,"
in ZATpy, 1902, pp. 1-56, 285-304 ; 1903, pp. 209-286 ; 1904, pp. 51-104 ;
1905, pp. 145-171-
" Post specialem singulonim gentium correptionem, Judaeae
(1-12), Babylonis (13I-1428), Philistim (h^^-^^), Moab (15 f.),
Damasci, Israel (17^""), Aegypti (18 f.), deserti maris (2i^-i<>),
Idumaeae (21^1^-) et Arabiae {21^^-^^), vallis visionis (22i-i*), et ad
extremum Tyri (23) . . . nunc quid totus orbis in consumma-
tione passurus sit, propheticus sermo describit, et nequaquam
de singulis gentibus, sed de cunctis pariter prophetatur."
Jerome here correctly seizes the fundamental difference
between chs. 24-27 and the preceding parts of the book; at
times, indeed, in chs. 24-27 the wider eschatological ideas
appear (see, e.g. 13 f.), and in chs. 24-27 there are allusions
in particular and by name to Assyria, Egypt, and Moab, as well
as to Jerusalem ; nevertheless, broadly the distinction holds : in
chs. 1-23 we have in the forefront the particular circumstances
or fates of definite and particular nations — Jewish or foreign,
in chs. 24-27 the future both of judgment and of promise
that awaits the world at large. We pass from prophecy to
apocalypse.
The contents of these chapters, very briefly described, are
as follows : — Yahweh is about to visit the world in judgment,
and His judgment will culminate in the punishment and im-
prisonment, with a view to subsequent and final judgment, of
the " host of the height " and the kings of the earth ; He will
Himself become universal king and lord, reigning gloriously from
Jerusalem (ch. 24) ; and at His accession He will give a feast in
Mount §ion to all the peoples of the world — the subjects of
Himself as universal Lord; victorious over all enemies (2421),
He will also destroy death and, under His rule, there will be
no mourning : in particular. He will remove the reproach which
His people the Jews have been suffering (25^-8). Between the
account of Yahweh's accession and coronation feast is inserted
(25^-*) a song in which the (Jewish) community, hitherto poor
and helpless, celebrates Yahweh's victorious career, which has
398 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
rescued it, and must exact homage from the "strong people"
and the city of "the awe-inspiring." Another song (2 5^^^2)j,
introduced as such by an introductory formula, follows the
account of the coronation feast : in this, those who have waited
for Yahweh's salvation now express their exultation in it This
song also contains, or is followed by a section which contains,
a prediction of the ignominious destruction of Moab. A third
song, introduced by a formula directing that it is to be sung in
the land of Judah, follows in 26i"i^ : this song contrasts Jerusalem,
as Yahweh will then have made it, in its strength with the " city
(now) set on high," which Yahweh will then have abased; it
refers to the loyalty of the Jews to Yahweh under the foreign
dominion to which they have been subject : and it concludes
with the prediction, rather than the mere hope, that the Jews
who have died will come to life again as members of the com-
munity, whose centre is the City which Yahweh will have made
strong. At the end of this song comes a short section in which
the writer exhorts his people to keep at home while the wrath
of Yahweh goes forth to punish the inhabitants of the earth and
the two Leviathans and "the dragon which is in the sea" (262<>-
27^). Then follows another song in praise of Yahweh's " delight-
ful vineyard," which closes with, or is followed by, the statement
that Israel shall flourish and " fill the face of the world with fruit "
(272-6). The connection of the following verses is loose, but
they contain (i) the promise that Israel's iniquity will be purged
by destroying (illegitimate) altars, 'asherim and hammanim (27^),
and (2) a description of the desolation of the fortified city of
a people without understanding and without claim on its Maker
for mercy (27^^^*). The entire section closes with a promise that
the Jews within the ideal limits of the land of promise will be
carefully (separated from the heathen ?) and gathered together,
and that the Jews of the dispersion in Egypt and Assyria will
be summoned by a great trumpet and will come up to worship
Yahweh in Jerusalem.
More than once in these chapters we seem to come on
allusions to clearly defined and particular historical events or
circumstances ; but as Del. well observes, " like will-o'-the-wisps,
they elude any attempt at following out and grasping them."
The allusion to the city of Jerusalem in 26^ is, of course, un-
mistakable though it is not here, as it is in 24^3, mentioned by
xxiv.-xxvii. 399
name ; but what are the " City of Chaos " (24^°), " the fortified
city" (27^®), the city set on high" (26^, cp. 25^2^, the citadel"
and "the city of the awe-inspiring" (252^-)? are they one and
the same? if so, what city is meant? and if they are different,
how many and what cities are intended? what people are
described as the "strong people" (25^)? It seems clear that
the writers had a definite city, or definite cities, and a definite
people in view, but unfortunately the descriptions are so vague
that they are satisfied by any of the many cities with which at
different times and by different writers they have been identified
— Nineveh, Babylon, Shushan, Tyre, Samaria, and so forth.
But though the definite and particular references are elusive,
certain general conditions are clear and significant : the Jews
are poor, distressed, and helpless, waiting for the intervention
of Yahweh to deliver them in some marvellous and miraculous
way (25^- 1"^ 26^"i2. 16-18 2^7), politically dependent (26^3), with no
king of their own, but with the priesthood as the highest rank
(to be inferred from 24^), an object of reproach throughout the
earth (25^) over which they are scattered (27!^ and, probably,
2414-16)^ few in number in their own land of Palestine (the
present situation implied by the prediction of 26^*^), and even
there , mingled with the heathen (27^2 probably). All this im-
plies that we have to do here with a work of the post-exilic
period ; and even one or two points, such as the references to
Assyria (27^^), and to idolatrous objects (27^) still needing to be
destroyed, that to some have seemed to suggest an earlier period
for at least the groundwork of the whole, are not really incom-
patible with a post-exilic period : indeed, the allusion to Assyria
occurs in a passage where lateness of circumstances, language,
and ideas is conspicuous (see below, and cp. Smend, p. 193 n.).
It remains possible, and as we shall see probable, that the entire
section is not a unity; but the general conditions of the post-
exilic period are reflected throughout.
Not less decisively do the ideas that find expression here
point to the post-exilic period ; and with probability, indeed, to
a very late part of that period. The ideas convinced Del., who
originally maintained the Isaianic authorship of chs. 24-27, that
it was post-Isaianic (p. 419). The difficulty, indeed, when we
consider these, is not to decide whether we are dealing with a pre-
exilic or a post- exilic work, but to see how any part of the
400 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
prophetic canon can be late enough to contain them. The
entirely explicit and well-established belief in the resurrection of
individual Israelites (261^) carries us far below Ezekiel, beyond
the Book of Job, and into the region of Daniel and Enoch
(/.<?. c. 165 B.C. and later). Certainly the history of this belief
among the Jews cannot be written with precision, and we know
that some Jews (Ecclesiastes, the Sadducees) rejected it long
after the majority held it firmly ; but could the argument of the
Book of Job have proceeded as it does, had any considerable
section of the author's fellow-countrymen held the belief expressed
in Is 26^^, which gives no indication whatever of being a mere
idiosyncrasy of the writer ? But to say that a work is later than
Job is to fix it by reference to a book whose date is itself disputed,
though few now maintain that it is earlier than the exile. It is
otherwise with Daniel ; and the question arises, was Is 26^^
written even as much as a century and a half earlier than Dn
12^, that is to say, in the age of Alexander the Great, to which
many have referred it ? Possibly ; but failing conclusive argu-
ments from other data to the contrary, the nearer any theory
brings this part at least of the whole to the Maccabaean period,
the more likely is it to approach the truth. Not less remarkable
is the prediction of the abolition of death (25^) ; and the
earliest close analogy that we find in Jewish literature to the
imprisonment of the heavenly host {24^2) is again to be found in
the Book of Enoch. Other ideas demand, or find their most
natural explanation, if we admit a post-exilic origin for chs.
24-27: 27^ may contain ancient mythology, but it is probably
late Jewish thought ; but, not to repeat here what is said below,
it must suffice to refer to the notes on Yahweh's visible
enthronement in §ion (2423), the conception of the nations as
violators of the eternal covenant (24^, cp. v. 20), the echo or
development of the Deutero-Isaiah's universalism in 25^^-, the
idea of the great trumpet that is to summon the elect (27^^), and
of the Jews as a righteous nation, loyal to Yahweh (262- ''^- ^^ • ct.
2y2-6 ^ith 5^'"^), with perhaps a section of wicked members (26^,
cp. Dn 12^). See also Che., Introd. 151-153 ; Smend, 199-202.
Finally, a third independent line of proof points to the con-
clusion that 24-27 is post-exilic: the style and language may not,
indeed, be late post-exilic, yet they are certainly post-exilic. The
style in brief is that of reproductive prophecy or apocalypse :
xxiv.-xxvii. 401
apart from passages where the text is corrupt, and these are
numerous, the style is fluent ; it is that of a writer whose mind is
retentive of, even saturated with, earlier prophetic writings, includ-
ing, but by no means confined to, those of Isaiah. This may be
safely said, even though in individual cases it may be open to
question, whether this writer or another later writer is the borrower.
Many of these correspondences are noted in the commentary or
notes that follow, and they have been collected together by
Smend (p. 196) and Cheyne {Introd, 147).
But along with this reproduction of the words and phrases of
earlier and later writers, there are considerable peculiarities of
vocabulary, and one or two of syntax : and, though the lists of
Smend (pp. 196-198) and Che. (pp. 148 f.) contain some peculi-
arities that may be merely due to textual corruption, the evidence
of peculiarity is too extensive to be greatly affected by one or
two words more or less. Moreover, the combination of peculi-
arities is such as we should find, not in any pre-exilic writer, but
rather in an author writing ±400 b.c. If Is 24-27 were much
later than 400 B.C. (cp. p. 400), we should expect certain features
(see p. 464) which do not appear there ; but the absence of these
does not, perhaps, render such a later date impossible (cp.
p. 465). See, further, below, pp. 463-472.
A striking characteristic of this section, not necessarily
indicative of date, but rightly claimed as constituting a dis-
similarity to the style of Isaiah, is the constant use of paronomasia
and, in 272-* and occasionally elsewhere, of rhyme. Isaiah,
indeed, makes use of paronomasia to emphasise an important
saying (cp. i^^ 5'^ 7®) ; but, though such a use may be found in
24^^^*, for the most part paronomasia with this writer is rather a
mere, though sometimes an effective, ornament of style.
Chs. 24-27 are, then, a work of the post-exilic period. But
are they a unity? Did the author, saturated as he certainly
is with older literature, borrow in bulk from now lost earlier
prophecies, say from Isaiah in 27^- ^^f.^ from a 7th cent, prophecy
in 25^-^(^^^-^(so Ew.)? It is a reasonable question to ask, but the
attempts to analyse these chapters so as to recover any such
Isaianic or pre-exilic basis have not been successful : see p. 399
on 27^2^-. Or has the main work with which we have to do here
been enlarged by later interpolations ? One thing is clear even
VOL. I. — 26
I
402 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
on the surface : the entire section is not of one character ; it is
for the most part a prophecy of a world-judgment and the New
Age which is to follow ; but the prophecy is interrupted at several
points by the introduction of songs : see 2^^-^' ^-12) 26^-1^ 272-5(6).
Three theories are possible : the songs may be earlier than the
prophecy, originally written for it, or subsequently inserted. But
in any case they are not separated widely in time, for the ideas,
the circumstances reflected, and the style of songs and prophecy
alike point to a late post-exilic period.
It does not seem impossible, or indeed altogether improbable,
that the writer of the prophecy should himself insert songs,
whether written by himself or another, to be sung by the citizens
of the new and glorious kingdom of Yahweh ; and if, as may
well have been the case, he knew Is 1-12, he would have had a
model in the songs of Is 12. But the first song, 25^*^, interrupts
the closely connected passages 24^^ (the accession of Yahweh)
and 25^'^ (His coronation-feast) in a manner which may more
naturally be attributed to the necessities of an editor who had
songs to insert, than to the free choice of the original writer, who
might have arranged his material differently. The connection
of 25^-8, especially v.^^ and 26^^-2 'j^ also seems to suffer from the
intervention of 25^-26^*, though less seriously and less obviously.
The song 272-6, and the following verses 2'j'^'^^ seem at best
loosely connected with, but the last verses 2 7^2f. may complete, the
prophecy contained in 24. 25^-8 2 6^0-2 7 1. In any case the theme
of the prophecy can be best understood by reading it in the first
instance without the songs ; consequently the translation of 24.
256-8 26^^-27^ and 27^2. 13 is given consecutively with merely an in-
dication of the points where the songs come in. The translations of
the songs will be found at their proper places in the commentary.
Modern analytical theories of 24-27 start with Du., though Ew. had
already observed the close connection of 24^ and 25^-^, and re-established it
outwardly by transposing 25^*-^^ and 25^-". Du. analysed the chapters into
{a) prophecy, 24. 25^-^ 26^-2^'^ 27'^', but with the remark that the last section
is full of difficulties, and that 27^2'- would attach best to 27^ ; {d) songs or
other added matter. Cheyne and Marti have adopted Du.'s analysis, except
that they both definitely reject from the original and prophetic groundwork
27'-".
Earlier, Koppe had analysed the section into three independent pieces —
24I-1* 24^^-28 25. 26. 27I 272-* 27'-" 2712. u The improvement in the later
analysis will be seen to be largely due to Ew.'s detection of the connection of
24^ and 26^-8.
xxiv.-xxvii. 403
«
It remains to notice briefly some of the theories that have been
held with regard to the particular historical circumstances which
called forth this prophecy as a whole, or any of its various parts.
None of them can be regarded as established.
So long as the Isaianic authorship of 24-27 was unquestioned, the threatened
city was obviously Nineveh : it was, of course, not easy to connect the pro-
phecy with the known circumstances of the 8th cent., and Michaelis is cited
by Ges. for the significant confession that he was utterly unable to explain
the historical relation of the prophecy. Hitz. placed the prophecy in the 7th
cent, just before the fall of Nineveh {c. 607).
Ges. identified the threatened city with Babylon, which seemed to him
clearly indicated, though, like Rome in Rev., not mentioned by name. He
therefore saw in chs. 24-27 a work contemporary with chs. I3f., 21. 40-66,
as Eichhorn and de Wette had done before him.
Ew., who held that the author of these chapters incorporated older
material (see above), and conjectured that it may have been the author of
ch. 12 who wrote and added to chs. 1-23 the present section of the book,
sought an occasion for this prophecy in Cambyses' preparations for his
Egyptian campaign (525 B.C.), which must have appeared peculiarly
threatening to Palestine (though, as we now know from the Elephantine
papyri, he treated Jewish settlers in Egypt with consideration) : 25*"°' ^^ 26"*
2710*. refer as already past to the overthrow of Babylon by Darius Hystaspes,
and 26^**^' to Jerusalem already re-established, though in poverty, after the
'Exile. Di., Del., Dr. {LOT 210 f.) agree that it belongs to the early
post-exilic period ; Di. urges that 26^*"^* was written within 60 or 70 years of
the restoration of Jerusalem, and 27^* * not too long after the pre-exilic period ;
Dr. suggests as a possibility that it may have been written as an encourage-
ment when the calamity referred to in Neh i* was impending. Oo. places it
in the 5th cent., but before the governorship of Nehemiah, when Moab
became Nabataean.
Many have referred the entire section to the 4th cent. : so, e.g.^ Kue.
Onderzoek^, ii. 99; Vatke, in his posthumous Einleitung\ Kirkpatrick,
Doctrine of the Prophets^ p. 475. In favour of this date, see especially the
elaborate and valuable discussions of Smend and Cheyne {Introd. 145-162) ;
Kennett (Comp. of the Book of Isaiah^ pp. 35 f.) argues against it. Smend
treats the section as a unity, and interprets the whole in the light of 25^''"^2 .
Moab, the one people openly referred to, with the exception of the Jews
themselves and in 27^2f. Assyria and Egypt, is the special object of the
writer's hostility, and some city, not to be determined, of Moab is the "city
set on high," etc. Cheyne argued that the "Apocalypse " (25*"^ 26^"-27' 27^2'* )
was called forth by the calamities produced by Artaxerxes Ochus (359-338
B.C.), that 27'*^" was written twenty years later, after this '* smiter " had been
smitten (27'^) by Alexander at Issus (333 B.C.), 26'"^* a little later (332 B.C.),
when Alexander had spared Jerusalem, and in the same year 25^*^* 25^'^^ 27^".
Later, Cheyne tacitly withdrew this theory in favour of the supposition that
in their original form the component parts of this " singular literary mosaic"
404 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
had a Jerahmeelite background, and that their present form is due to a " late "
redactor, who is responsible, among other things, for introducing the idea of
the abolition of death {Crit. Bibl. 30-33).
Vatke in 1835 {Bibl. Theologie, p. 550) anticipated Du., Marti, and
Kennett in referring this prophecy to the 2nd cent., and, in particular to the
Maccabaean period. Du. and Marti refer the several sections, into which
they analyse the whole, as follows: (i) the main apocalypse, to a date
shortly after 128 B.C. — the year in which Antiochus vii. Sidetes, who had
conquered Jerusalem, which was still feeling the effects (24'"^^), was defeated
by the Parthians, the plunderers of 24^^"^* and one of the three powers
symbolised in 27^ ; (2) 25^"'* celebrates the destruction of Samaria in 107 B.C.,
and 26^"^ praises God for the same event, and 27^*^ is of the same period ;
(3) 25''^^ a song of triumph over the defeat of Moab at the end of the reign of
John Hyrcanus, or the beginning of that of Alexander Jannaeus ; 27^""
between 128 and iii B.C.
The foregoing summary may serve to emphasise the
indefiniteness of the historical allusions; and in conclusion it
may be added that some writers consider the apparently definite
references to be typical rather than literal. Dr., for example,
who recalls the fact that Babylon continued to be an important
city down to 332, thinks that Babylon is the unnamed city, yet
not the literal Babylon : " Babylon becomes a type of the powers
of heathenism, which the prophet imagines as entrenched behind'
the walls of a great city, strongly fortified, but destined in God's
good time to be overthrown" (LOT 210; cp. Baudissin, p.
374); and Cheyne asks, "Why should not *Moab' be an
imaginative type of all the proud enemies of Israel" {Introd.
159).
But whether the " city " and Moab be literally or typically
intended, the particular historical circumstances remain evasive :
the general political and social conditions, as well as the language
and style, compel us to refer the prophecy to the post-exilic
period : the ideas should warn us that any theory which refers
the prophecy to an early part of that period is hazardous.
XXIV., XXV. 6-8, XXVI. 20, 21, XXVII. i, 12, 13.
An Apocalyptic Poem.
There are in places conspicuous rhythmical irregularities, or great corrup-
tion of the text [e.g. 24^"* ^"" ^) ; and 27^^^ reads almost like prose : but for
the most part parallelism is maintained and a balanced rhythm. There is no
trace of the echoing rhythm 3 : 2, though occasionally in the present text the
lines of the distichs are in the rhythmical relation 4 : 3 ; see 24^*'* ° 26^,
xxiv.-xxvii., XXIV. 1-8 405
The most frequent rhythm is 3 : 3 (rarely 3 13:3); this clearly appears
in 24*»- »>• 8-"- ^*^ ^ "• »*""• ^ *•• 21b. e 257 2621=- «, possibly also in 24»»- »» (ffi),
24* (neglecting jrVy ; cp. n. on 'in, p. 89 top), 24^**- »» (where ffi omits yi3, and
.munm may be read as two accents), 24'^- •• (see phil. n.). The rhythm
4 : 4 (or 4 : 4 : 4) appears in 25'''' " 262''' '' 27* and may possibly be traced in
24I (see phil. n.), 24^' ^' "• (see n.)» 24^* (neglecting n'm), 2$^^^ «. Rarer are
the rhythms 2 : 2 (24*''-**- "•• '') and 2:2:2 (24', but see phil. n. on v.*) ; and
6 : 6 (2712b. oj,
^ Behold, Yahweh is emptying the earth and making it
bare;
And he will distort its surface, and disperse its inhabit-
ants.
2 And so the priest shall be like the people,
The master like the slave,
The mistress like the maid,
The seller like the buyer.
The borrower like the lender,
He of whom interest is taken like him that taketh
interest.
* The earth shall be wholly emptied.
And *the world* shall be wholly despoiled,
For Yahweh hath spoken this word.
* The earth hath mourned, withered.
The world hath latiguished, withered;
• ••••••
* And the earth hath become polluted under its in-
habitants.
Because they have transgressed laws, overstepped statutes,
Broken the eternal covenant.
* Therefore a curse hath devoured the earth,
And they that dwell therein have paid penalty;
Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched,
And few shall be the mortals that are left.
^ The must hath mourned.
The vine hath languished.
All the joyous-hearted have sighed.
* The merriment of the timbrels is still,
The noise of the jubilant has ceased,
The merriment of the lute is still.
406 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
^ With song they shall not drink wine (any more),
Bitter shall strong drink be to them that drink it.
'^^ The City of Chaos is broken,
Every house is closed so that it cannot be entered.
^^ There is outcry in the streets for the wine,
All joy has reached its eventide,
The merriment of the earth is exiled.
12 Desolation is left in the city.
And the gate shall be crushed into ruins (?).
^^ For thus shall it be in the midst of the earth,
Among the peoples as when olives are struck off,
As at the gleaning when the vintage is complete.
1* T/iey shall lift up their voice,
They shall ring out their joy in the majesty of Yahweh,
They have given a shrill cry from the sea (?).
15 Therefore in the . . . glorify Yahweh,
In the isles of the sea the name of Yahweh, the God
of Israel.
From the extremity of the earth we have heard songs,
" Beauty for the righteous ! a a a Woe to a the dis-
loyal" A A
1*^ Terror and pit and gin
Are upon thee, O (every) inhabitant of the earth !
18 And he that flees from the sound of* the terror, shall fall into
the pit ;
And he that cometh up from the midst of the pit, shall
be caught in the gin.
For lattices have been opened in the height,
And the foundations of the earth have quaked.
1^ The earth has utterly broken asunder.
The earth has utterly split,
The earth has utterly shaken
20 The earth shall stagger like a drunkard,
And sway like a night-refuge;
And its rebellion shall weigh heavily on it.
And it shall fall, and arise no more.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day Yahweh will punish
The host of the height in the height,
And the kings of the earth on the earth ;
XXIV. 9-23, XXV. 6-8, XXVI. 20, 21, XXVII. i 407
22 And they shall be gathered, as prisoners are gathered,
into the pit.
And imprisoned in the prison;
And after many days they shall be punished.
^ And the moon shall be abashed.
And the sun shall be ashamed.
For Yahweh of Hosts will have become King in Moum §ion,
And in Jerusalem and before his clders * shall he show him-
self glorious.'
[25^-5. A song : see p. 425.]
25® And Yahweh of Hosts will make for all peoples in this mountain,
A feast of fat things, a feast of wine on the lees.
Of fat things full of marrow, of wine on the lees well-
refined ;
^ And he will annihilate in this mountain
The veil that veils all the peoples,
And the web that is woven over all nations;
* He hath annihilated death for ever ;
And, the Lord Yahweh will wipe away tears from all faces,
And remove his people's reproach from all the earth:
For 'tis Yahweh hath spoken.
[25* (-12). A song: see p. 431 f.]
[26^-1^ A song : see p. 435 f.]
26^ Go, my people, enter into thy chambers,
And shut thy doors about thee;
Hide thyself for a brief moment,
Until Wrath pass by.
21 For behold Yahweh is coming forth from His place.
To visit the iniquity of the inhabitants of the earth
upon them ;
And the earth shall reveal her blood,
And shall no more cover her slain.
27^ In that day Yahweh shall visit (iniquity)
With his fierce and great and mighty sword,
Upon Leviathan the fleeing serpent,
And upon Leviathan the twisted serpent.
And he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.
^
408 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
[272^-. A song: see p. 453.]
^2 And it will come to pass in that day,
Yahweh will beat off (olives) from the current (?) of the
River to the Wady of Egypt.
And ye shall be picked up one by one, O children of
Israel.
1^ And it shall come to pass in that day
(A blast) shall be blown on a great trumpet ;
And they that were lost in the land of Assyria,
And the outcasts in the land of Egypt shall come,
And worship Yahweh
In the holy mountain in Jerusalem.
XXIV. 1-3. A world-judgment is imminent— On two
points, which divided interpreters in the past, a general agree-
ment in the sense just indicated has now been reached. The
object of Yahweh's judgment is the world,* not the northern
kingdom of Israel,! nor, at least exclusively, Judah ; % the time
is the immediate future,§ not the past.|| As to the last point,
the part, with n^n normally denotes the immediate future : linked
to a preceding narrative, it may, it is true, particularise a scene
in the past or an occurrence in the present; but here, if the
reference was to the past, the use of this cstr. instead of the pf
at the outset would be motiveless (Dr. 135 (3) with Obs. i) ;
that the normal future force is here intended is proved by the
tenses in vv.^^* (n^ni, pnn), and the concluding formula in v.^^
There is more reason to consider the possibility of X^'^'^ having
the limited sense of land (RV marg.) of Palestine, rather than
earth (AV, RV text) ; for if the whole earth is emptied^ whither
are the inhabitants dispersed"^ Moreover, in v.^ the author may
well seem to be describing the country of Judah, where (after
the Exile) the priest was the leading feature ; and v.* may seem
to refer to the violation of the law revealed to Israel. But the
first point must be attributed to a certain vagueness in the use
of figures, which the writer multiplies ; in v.^ he thinks of the
society, and in vv.'''-^^ of the economic conditions, of the world
* Ki., Vitr., Del., Di., Du., Cheyne, Marti.
\ Rashi and many interpreters referred to by Ki.
X Ges. : cp. Smend (p. 164), "the whole world, but in the first instance
Judah." § So already ?:i. II Ges.
I
XXVII. 12, 13; XXIV. 1-3 409
at large in the light of his own ; and v.* has another meaning ;
see n. there. That the earth is intended, is shown by the use of
the parallel and unambiguous * ^an, worlds in v.*, and the virtual
equation of X^)lsT\ and peoples in v.^^ — not to speak of the inap-
propriateness of the wide and general eschatological outlook to
the denunciation of a single land; cp. especially 2^^-^.
I. Yahweh is about to empty the world of its inhabitants
and transform its very appearance. — Yahweh is emptying the
earth"] "first by means of plunderers, then by means of the
natural phenomena that accompany the world-judgment" (Du.);
cp. VV.8- 1^^'. The vb. pp3 occurs also (in Kal, Niph., or Pilel) in
V.8 193, Jer 19*^ 51^, Nah 2^ (an interpolation), and its meaning
is most safely determined by these occurrences ; it is supposed
to derive its meaning to empty from the gurgling noise made by
a bottle when being emptied (cp. j:;, to make a gurgling noise). —
And making it dare] the word ph^ (Nah 2"! Pual) is very rare
in Heb. ; cp. djXit a desert land^ destitute of vegetable produce
and water, or of human beings^ inhabited by none but Jinn
(Lane). With the paronomasia bokek . . . ubol^kah, cp. bul^ah
um^bukah um®bullalj:ah, Nah 2^^. — And he will distort its surface]
making it unrecognisable by destroying places, plantations, and
the like upon it (cp. Rev 6^*^), is Di.'s explanation. Un-
certain; see phil. n. EV "and turneth it upside down" is
too strong. — And disperse its inhabitants] cp. Gn 1 1*. — 2. All
classes alike will be affected by the coming judgment: rank,
mastery, wealth will be of no avail : the point is not exactly
the same as in 3^-* (Du., Marti). Living under the post-exilic
hierocracy, the writer takes the priest as typical of rank (cp.
Ezr 10^), and the (common) people as the antithesis. In Hos
4* the priest is introduced as the one who has had, and ought
to have imparted, knowledge of Yahweh to the people of all
classes. — The seller . . . the buyer] Ezk 7^2, — The borrower , . . the
lender ] Pr 22^^. — He of whom interest is taken, etc.] for ntJ'3, cp.
Dt 24", I S 222, Jer 15^°.— 3. The world] see ffi^ ; Jj^ omits.
The utter plundering of the earth is certain, for Yahweh hath
spoken (i^o n.) this word\ the addition of the obj. in this formula
is peculiar to this passage ; yet cp. 58^* (5r.
* Smend (p. 166), however, still asserts that ^an may have a sense corre-
sponding to the limited sense of fiK.
410 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
I, .TJfl mjn npSini] one vb. instead of two, and that governing .tjs, would
make v.^ a good 4 : 4 distich. Perhaps the text originally ran n'JS p"?3i, and
making a desert of its surface ; ct. naian Sin '3D iK'?m, 27^. my, Piel, in
La 3^t evidently has the fundamental meaning of the root rw]), t^*^, to bend^
twist ; and possibly the Hebrews thought of a ruin as a kind of distortion of
the face of the earth into shapelessness ; cp. 'y, Mic 3^^ ; njy, Ezk 21^^.
Perhaps 'b '33 niy might mean to make a person look sad, grieved (Hitz.);
but so strong a personification of the earth would be unlikely here, ffi koX
dvaKa\ij\l/€i. might point to n'?3i, which would be no satisfactory alternative
to 1^, scarcely to .Tiyi (Co.). — 2. nmnaa] instead of nmn:?, to maintain the
assonance with the other eleven words beginning with 3; G-K 1272, — xb'3]
many MSS rim ; cp. rimi. — ^3. nnn . . . pun] instead of 1311, p?n, to gain
an assonance with the infin. abs.; cp. v.^ n. — nnn] (St + riyij, perhaps = ^3n,
as in 26^^— '3] ffi + 'fl ; cp. 25^ 58^^ ; in 40" |^ has, and (Sr has not, 'S.
4-13. The world suffers for its sins, and " the city of
Chaos " falls into ruins. — It is disputed whether vv.*-i2 are,
like vv.^'3- ^^, prophetic of the future (Smend), or descriptive " of
the tokens in the present of the coming world catastrophe"
(Marti). The pf. tenses which predominate in vv.^'^^ p^ay, of
course, be descriptive of the actual past or present, or they may
be prophetic pf. ; and again the impf. tenses or pf. with waw
in vv.^*** *• ^2b may be vivid touches in a description of the past
(Dr. § 36), in which case v.^ may well describe recurrent action
in the present, or they may be simple futures interchanging with
the prophetic perfects (Dr. § 14). But the formula at the end of
v.^ possibly indicates, as Di. argues, that the prophetic announce-
ment is for the moment concluded, and gives place to description
m vv.
4-12
4. The whole world mourns and loses vital power. i^K, fo
mourn, often appears joined, or in parallelism, with vbs. such as
hboii, ti^'3% denoting loss of power or vitality; cp. e.g. 19^ 33^,
Hos 4^, Jer 12*. 733, ^0 wither, occurs most frequently of
flowers or leaves withering and falling {e.g. i^^ 28^ 34* 40^^), and
from the root is derived n733 {a) lifeless {body), corpse \ tTO"^ is
used of cessation of fertility in women (i S 2^, Jer 15^), field
(16^), trees (v.^ Jl i^^)^ — The highest of the people of the earth
languish'] lit. the height, etc. ; cp. glory for glorious ones, 5^^ n.
16^*. A very slight and easy emendation would give The
height {i.e. heaven) and the earth together languish] but if the
writer wished to introduce the coming judgment on "the host
of the height " (v.^i) here, he would scarcely have devoted two
XXIV. r-3, 4-13 411
and a half lines to earth and only a half to heaven ; moreover,
in what immediately follows heaven passes out of consideration.
Even the specification of a particular class of the inhabitants
of earth seems rather out of place (cp. v.*). Possibly the line
is a gloss explaining what " earth " means and includes ; in that
case v.* was originally a distich ; or, perhaps, v.**, now corrupt,
was the first line of a balanced distich (4 : 4), of which v.** was
the second. — 5. The cause of all this is the pollution of the
earth by the transgressions of its inhabitants, more especially
by bloodshed; cp. 26^1. The idea of the profanation of the
land of Israel by the conduct of its inhabitants in shedding of
blood, committing adultery, or practising idolatry, is found in
Nu 3533, Ps io638, Jer 3^; cp. Dt 21I-9, Gn 4iof., Job 16". But
the shedding of blood was one of the things forbidden not only
to the Jews, but to the whole of the descendants of Noah, by
the eternal covenant^ i.e. the covenant made after the Flood
between God and "all flesh which is upon the earth" (Gn
^1-17 p). Among the laws or instructions and statutes (for the
phraseology, cp. the quotation from the Sibylline books given
below in v.^o), which men at large have trangressed, the writer
may also have had in view such practices as are alluded to in
Zee ^^ a passage which also shows the influence of P ; cp. also
Rev Q^of*. In view of 73n in v."*, y^'^rs here cannot be limited
to the land of Canaan, nor the transgressors of the laws to the
Jews (cp. above), nor the eternal covenant to that of Sinai
(Smend, p. 165). The nations, as transgressors of statutes im
posed by God, are termed "all the nations that forget God"
in Ps 9^8.
6-9. Consequences of the corruption of men — a curse de-
vours the earth, men are reduced to a few in number, joy
departs. — 6. A curse hath devoured the eartK\ cp. Zee s^'- : such
bold personifications in describing the working of a curse came
easily to those who attributed objective existence to solemnly
uttered words (cp. Numbers^ p. 327 f.). — Paid penalty] suffered
punishment for their guilt: for this sense of DC'N, cp. e.g.
Ps 34^^^-, Jer 2^. — The inhabitants . . . are scorched] Rev 16*
records that, as a result of the pouring out of the fourth vial
of God's wrath, "men were scorched with great heat." The
vb. is also used of " burning with fever " ; but where this sense
is intended, the parts aff"ected are specified (Job so^O; Niph.
412 COMMENTARY ON IS AT AH
Ps 102*). The sudden introduction of so particular a punish-
ment, which is not decisively suggested by the vb. devour (cp.
^24 ioi7) in the previous line, is a little curious; hence some
emend V\n to "ipin, have ceased {to be) -, unfortunately, this would
make the next line anti-climactic (see phil. n.).
7-9. No more grapes, no more merry feasts with wine,
music, and song. The writer has in mind 5^2- ^*, Jl i^o. 12 (note
also injW, v.''; differently used in Jl i^^). — The must mourns']
here KH^n seems used of the juice in the grape (cp. 65^) which
" mourns " or dries up. — 8. The jubilant] careless merrymakers :
cp. 22^, Zeph 2^5 for the force oi jubilant (yhv)'
10-12. The destruction of a city now becomes the theme,
the passing away of its glad throngs, the broken gates, the desola-
tion that remains. — The city of Chaos] the city is probably the
capital of the world-empire under which the writer lived — whether
Nineveh, Babylon, Susa depends on the age in which he lived.
Unfortunately the writer (or some subsequent editor) has chosen
a term and description so ambiguous that the v. cannot form the
starting-point in a discussion of the origin of his work. It is not
even admitted by all that he has a single particular city in view ;
the noun, it is said, is collective {e.g. BDB, s.v. nnp), and <&
renders every city. V.^^ (Joes not favour this view, and still less
the view that "city" means two particular cities, Sidon and
Jerusalem (Che. Introd. 155). Again, as to the significance of
ChaoSy there is doubt : the most appropriate and probable kind
of phrase (cp. Jer 49^^) is obtained by taking inn, chaos^ in the
sense which it bears in i S 1221, cp. Is 412*; the city of Chaos
is the city of idolatry, of sham gods, in contrast to Jerusalem,
" the city of God " ; it is essentially, as the capital of the world-
empire which is in rebellion against God, the embodiment of
those powers which claim to be somewhat, but are truly unreal
(cp. vv.21'2^). Much less natural is the alternative view which
regards inn, chaos^ as used prophetically — the city (or cities)
which will become a chaos (cp. 34^^) when it has been destroyed.
In this latter sense the phrase is almost necessarily taken by
those {e.g. Du., Marti) who identify the city, not with the capital
of the world-empire, but with Jerusalem ! It was natural for
Ges. to take this view, who limited the scope of judgment to
Palestine, but it is by no means natural to take it so in a descrip-
tion of a world-judgment j for in such a connection city ("i^y,
/
XXIV. 7-13 413
n^ip) is by no means as obviously Jerusalem as iroXts was Athens
to Greece and urbs Rome to the Romans ; still less would nnp
inn immediately suggest, even if it could without much explana-
tion ever suggest, Jerusalem. — Is broken] cp. " Babylon is fallen
and broken," Jer 51^, like a cup (Jb. vj). Possibly the writer
has this v. in mind, for the use of IDK^: of the destruction of
a city is uncommon. It refers, here at least, perhaps, to the
breaking down of the walls, ^^\ The city is open to the assail-
ants, and, therefore, the citizens shut up their houses against
intrusion (cp. 262<^) ; this seems the best interpretation of the
line, though it forms a curious introduction to v.^^ ; if every one
is shut up in his house, whence ^^* (cp. Jl i*) the lamentation
tn the streets of the city (v.^^) for the loss of wine (cp. 32^2^?
It is very doubtful whether n^D will bear the meaning required
by an alternative interpretation — every house is so blocked with
fallen masonry and the like, that no one, even of the owners of
the houses, can get in ; this would leave v.^^* a little less out
of place, though Ges. pertinently remarks, " In a city destroyed
by a barbaric foe, in which thousands had perished, there might,
one would have supposed, have been more important things
to bemoan than that there was no wine." Possibly, however,
11* (which at present, whether regarded as a monostich or as con-
stituting with ii^**' a tristich, interrupts the sequence of distichs)
is out of place, and once stood in another connection in which
mvin had the meaning of {country) outside {the city)^ open country^
as in Job 510, Ps 144I3, Prov 82« (?) 2427 (RV alway "field(s)");
it may have shifted to its present position in the account of the
city (vv.^0"^2^ by one who took the word in the commoner sense
of streets. Possibly it once stood after '^^ while '^ formed a dis-
tich with ^^ now shifted out of place, leaving *^<^ as another
distich (yet see phil. n. on v.^). — lib. All joy has reached its
eventide] the sun of joy is set ; but the existence of this fine
figure in the original text is unfortunately not quite certain ; the
vb. 3"iy, to becotne evenings is only paralleled by Jg 19^, where the
text of f^ is wrong 1 The use of the Hiphil in i S 17^^ scarcely
establishes the present use of Kal ; hence many transpose and
read niiy, has passed away. — 12. Instead of gates^ (& speaks of
houses ; see phil. n. — 13. Whatever be the case with vv. ^'^^^ we
here move again in the sphere of prediction (n''n^) ; yet ""D, for^
is difficult, if vv.*-^2 describe the past, for how is something
414 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
future the ground of something past? For the rest the v. is
clear ; few will survive the judgment that is about to affect the
whole world ; to express this the writer uses the figures employed
by Isaiah in 17^ in reference to Ephraim and Damascus only.
4. n^^DK, (i)n^3J] aSc om. ; and so, very precariously, on metrical grounds,
Kit. In |§ V.*** •* is 3 : 3, like, e.g:, vv.*- ^^. — }'^^<n d^ ditd i'?'?dn] a pi. vb.
with a noun having a collective sense (G-K. i^^d-d), if |^ is correct.
Slightly modifying a suggestion of Gun. {Schdpf. u. Chaos^ p. 48), we might
read pK.n cy Dinsn ^Sdn ; yet see above. Possibly fflr {^) did not read oy ;
it renders ol i/^prjXol rrjs yrjs : but cp. the apparent neglect or omission of Dy in
the rendering of a parallel phrase pN.n oy "•tffni in Job 12^^. There may be
serious corruption in the last three words of f^, and ^b':>Dn (from nhhatt in the
last line) may have accidentally supplanted a vb. parallel to nsjn in v.^*.
— 5. isVn] here only in the sense ^0 transgress; but the synonymous nay
is frequently so used. — nijn] G^ om. — 6. pN nh^H nhn] note the sustained
assonance. — nn] irrcaxoi ^aovrai, either a guess, or for "iSt; if the latter, the
proposed reading i^in (if correct) by the loss of one letter became J§, of
another ffi. Gratz proposed imn ; cp. 60^2^ — lyTD] of number, 16^^ f. — imw]
cp. nniu, 21^ 35^<>; vb. and noun are "mostly poet, and late" (BDB, g'.v.).
—8. ni33 vMffD nnr, D'sn k'ib'D nac] possibly variants (Du.); if so, another
apparent tristich becomes a distich. If not variants, the second t^itrD may be
an error (ii'n.) for another word (? h^p ; (& (pdivfj). In this case perhaps v.®*"
is misplaced, and once with v.'° formed a distich ; vv.^* ® together then
consisted of three distichs, not as at present of two distichs. — D'r'?y] 22^ n.
— 9. Tra] for the use of a, cp. 30^^ i& ri(Tx^vdri(Tav = ^vi'. wrongly. —
10. inn nnp matyj] (& ijpttixihdtj vaaa 7r6Xts, ^ lA-i^^ Z^l^iZI, E mantt
nxnx pnmp, JT, attrita est civitas vanitatis. ffir scarcely implies a different
text (cp. Liebmann) ; xaaa may be an interpretation, or, even more prob-
ably, due to the transposition of ^3 from the following clause where (S
did not read it.— II. msina }"n '?y nms] (& ^XyXiJ^ere, /ctX. =im:f. Hitz. pro-
posed {ZWTh. xviii. 201 f., as cited by Di.) nisinn pa rh^ nms (cp. Ps I44^S
Jer 14^ Prov 26^^): Siegfr.-St. 'na nn'?y nniJt — emendations which only in
part meet the real difficulties of J§ (see above). — nany] ffi iriiravrai ( = naB',
v.^), & A_l4^) ^ no'^^ty.— tyi^D n^i] fflr om.— 12. nye' na' n'>nen] n'n& is ace.
of the product (G-K. 1172V, 121a?). ns; Hoph. of nna (G-K. 67^, j). (B
{Kal oIkoi iyKaToXeXififx^voi diroXovvrai) had a different text, perhaps n'a •tkb'
nae" (Lieb.). — 13. na 'a] ffi^ raOra irdj'ra. — \'\^n anpa] fflr ^i/ r^ 7^.
14-16. Praise, and a summons to Praise. — These
verses are exceedingly obscure and uncertain. According to
the present text, different sets of people are introduced as
speaking : note they (v.^*) ; ye, y}^ (MT, but ? ?^ and not ffir) :
we, v.i« ; /, v.^* ( , but they fflr). A large part of the difficulty
of- interpretation consists in attempting to determine who these
XXIV. 4-i3» 14-16 415
different speakers are, and the exact purport of their sayings.
But V.'* seems to be seriously corrupt ; it is really unintelligible,
in spite of ingenious attempts to interpret it, and the rhythmical
and parallelistic structure of the poem breaks down in it. The
latter half especially reads more like prose than poetry. Vv.^** ^^
also are probably not free from corruption, but it is less serious.
Any attempt to interpret the verses must, therefore, be tentative,
and no complete and satisfactory interpretation of them in their
present position seems possible. It is not unreasonable to sus-
pect either that the verses are out of place, or that something has
been lost between vv.^^ and K If, however, v.^* is the original
continuation of v.J^, then non, f/iey^ at the beginning of v.^* must
be explained by what precedes. It cannot be determined by
v.i^ to the effect that it is the antithesis of the /of that v. (Di.,
Du., Marti); for (i) the reading in v.^® is uncertain ; and, what is
far more important, (2) if there were the strong antithesis between
the sentiments of f/iey in v.^* and /in v.^^, which the hypothesis
supposes, it would have been necessary to express the pronoun
in v.i* — ^miO« ^3K1 instead of "ICSI. It is only necessary to
compare the very passages cited in support of this theory to
perceive the insecure linguistic basis on which the theory
rests; see Jer 17^^ "Let them be put to shame that persecute
me, but let not me be put to shame " (^3K nK'DK hto), and so in
the following and parallel sentence : Ps 20^ (^ " Some of horses
and some of chariots, but we will make mention of the name of
Yahweh" (M) DlJ'a i:mK1 . • . 2313 nf^x) ; Ps 120^ "I am for
peacCj they are for war" (nDTihvh non . . . Dli'K' ^:n); (3) the
remoteness of the supposed antithesis makes it most unsuitable
to determine the sense of non against the suggestion of what
precedes. If we seek to explain non by what precedes, its only
possible reference is to those who escape the judgment; that
small remnant which has just been compared (v. ^3) to the olives
left after the striking, and the grapes on the vine after the vintage.
Of whom then does this remnant consist, of Jews or Gentiles ?
Does v.^* describe the joyous praise of Yahweh by the Jews who
shall escape in the great world-judgment, or the confession by
Gentile survivors of the " God of Israel " (v.^^) as the true God
of all mankind ? The tone of the v. no doubt rather favours, at
first sight at least, the view generally taken that v.^* refers to
Jews; but the other view is in itself by no means impossible;
41 6 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
and it is at least worth observing that 17^, which is the model of
v.i^ is immediately followed (17^) by a statement that all man-
kind will turn "to the Holy One of Israel." Though if did
not originally follow 17^, it probably stood in its present position
as early as the age of this writer. Again, it is not improbable
that among the many other passages of scripture that haunted
the writer's memory was Ps 47, which speaks of the joyful hand-
clapping and ringing cries (nn b^p, Ps 47 2, cp. here 13T ub^p)
with which the heathen that survive will welcome the accession
of Yahweh in Mt. Sion (v. 23) as king of all nations (Ps 4^- ^) ;
cp. below 256, Yahweh's coronation-feast for all nations. The
connection in vv.^^^- is on this view, as on any other, difficult,
and perhaps impossible, to establish ; but it is barely possible that
it is as follows : because the heathen will praise God, therefore (ye
scattered Jews) glorify God throughout the world (v.^^); from
the end of the earth we who exhort you have heard (prophetic-
ally?) songs celebrating the glory of the righteous Q^ : ^^^
corrupt and unintelligible). Or, treating n23 as pf. rather than
imperative (MT) : — Therefore, they will by celebrating Yahweh
(v.^*) have fulfilled the promise (4210-12) ^^at Yahweh's praise
should be in the isles : they will glorify Him, saying, We have
heard songs from remote Jerusalem to the effect that glory belongs
to the righteous. Certainly w.^^*^- greatly increase the difficulty
of interpreting v.^*. Before proceeding to the discussion of
details, it may be convenient to indicate yet another attempt to
explain the sequence of ideas, — v.^^ predicts that mankind must
be yet further destroyed than it has already been (vv.*-^^)^
vv.i4-i6a relate that the Jews of the Diaspora are already singing
songs of joy at some great event that has happened ) but the
writer, a Jew of Palestine, differs : such songs, he urges in
yy i6b-2o^ are out of place ; no glory yet, but more violence : so
Marti, substantially following Du. But (i) this involves defining
non in v.^* by v.^^ ; for though the remnant from the judgment
(v. ^3) might be Jews of the Dispersion (see above), yet on the
present hypothesis x\)iyr\ cannot refer to them, for v.-^^ belongs to
the future, v.^* to the present or the past ; (2) this very change
of time assumed is most unnatural ; if nM** of v.^^ refer to the
future (as it must), the next imperfects (IKK^S in''), nothing sug-
gesting the contrary, can only naturally be taken in the same
sense, and pnv (if the text be sound) is prophetic pf.; (3) the
XXIV. 14, 15 417
arrangement would be most inept; neither v.^* (nor the pre-
ceding verses) explain either who the singers of v.** are, or the
reason of their joy; on the other hand, v." does contain what,
on the hypothesis, ought to have made them, like their com
patriot in Jerusalem, "lean," not joyful; (4) the therefore of
v.^* is admitted to be awkward, but its presence is accounted for
as forming part of a quotation: a possible explanation, but
equally serviceable to help out any other interpretation ; (5) the
theory rests on the extraordinary and improbable interpretations
of the existing text of v.^^^
14. In the translation the first two lines represent a distich
3:3; the last line then stands isolated, probably on account of
textual error and dislocation (see phil. n.). If, however, the
text of v.^* is sound, it consists of a distich 4 : 4 —
They shall lift up their voice, they shall ring out their joy,
Of the Majesty of Yahweh they have cried aloud from
^ the sea;
The parallelism in this case is less neat. — They'\ the survivors
from the judgment (v.^^) ; as to whether these will be Jews or
heathen and for another interpretation of the pronoun, see the
preceding discussion. For inp NC^3 (//// up the voice) and pT {to
ring out joy) \vi parallelism, cp. 52^; co-ordinated asyndetos^ as
they would be if the distich is 4 : 4, they do not recur again.
— The majesty of Yahweh] cp. Ex 15"^, Mic 5^, "his glorious
majesty," Is 2^^ (pw as here): also 26^0 12^ (mw). — They have
cried aloud] 7nv, 12^ n. — From the sea] may mean from the west
(11^*); then, on one interpretation, the Jews of the Asiatic
coastland or of Egypt, living west of the writer's standpoint,
Jerusalem, would be referred to. But the limitation of jubilation
to the survivors in one quarter of the world only would be curi-
ous.— 15. Wherefore] see above, p. 416. The word that follows
is DnK3, in the lights ; it is very doubtful whether this means tlje
East as the region of light ; but some term for East in antithetic
parallelism with the isles of the sea (v.^''^), i.e, the West, may very
well have stood here. — Glorify] J^ can be equally well rendered
they have glorified. On the subject of the vb. in either case,
see above. — Yahweh^ God of Israel] this term for God would be
particularly suitable if the heathen are the subject of glorify ; but
there is plenty of analogy for its use ifTews alone are the subject :
VOL. I. — 27 ^
4l8 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
cp. e.g. 21^^ 37^^ 411*^. — 16. From the extremity of the earth"] for
the sense of ci33, cp. ii^^^ Jl 37^ 381^ (all pi). It is questioned
whether extremity here is an error for extremities (©), or being
used collectively is equivalent to the pi. ; or, if one extremity be
meant, whether that extremity be the Eastern, Babylon (Di.)
or Persia (Kit), or the Southern, Ethiopia (Du.). But the
question cannot be answered. — We\ the prophet in Palestine
and his companions? see above. The purport of the songs
(niDT, 2 S 23^ Ps 119^*, Job 35^0, Is 25^) seems to be given in
the words Beauty for the righteous ; cp., for the occurrences of
the word ""SV, beauty^ which may illustrate this passage, 4^ 28^* *
1319, Ezk 2o6-i5j Dn \\^^'^^. No longer will great worldly but
unrighteous empires like Babylon appear beauteous, but the
righteous nation (26^ ; also Hab i** ^^ 2*), i.e. the Israel of the
future and those who, as fearing the One True God, attach
themselves to it. The suggestion that the righteous means
Yahweh has now been rightly abandoned. It is not improbable
that the rest of the v. originally consisted merely of an antithesis,
Woe to the disloyal (D^nn? ^1N), to those who instead of
becoming righteous by the observance of the Law of Yahweh,
deal treacherously and disloyally; cp. Hab i^^, where DHH is
parallel to W^ (the antithesis of p^nv), and Ps 25^, where it is
antithetical to " those that wait on Yahweh " (the equivalent of
the " righteous " here), and Ps 59^ where px ^'Ml ^3 is parallel to
"all the nations." The present text of f^ may be rendered
literally, And I saidy I have leanness^ I have leanness ; Woe is
me; plunderers have plundered (cp. 21^ n.) and plunder
plunderers have plundered \ ffi reads, And they shall say^ Woe
to them that set at nought ; as for them that set at nought the
law (then follows v.^^). It is noticeable that in ffi the first
pers. sing, of f^ entirely disappears. The interpretation of those
who consider f^ the original text and intelligible is well put by
Marti : " Our poet judges otherwise (than the voices which have
spoken in vv.^^'^^). No, he says, not *av, but '•n ; not victory
{Sieg\ but sickness {Siechthuni) ; not the dawn of the Bright
Age, but continuance of illness. The prophet proves this by
the prophecy, * Plunderers plunder.'" Against this it may be
remarked (i) that the divergence of © renders it all uncertain;
(2) itDX^ even if correctly pointed, cannot without the expression
of the pronoun mark the strong antithesis required; (3) the
XXIV. I4-20 419
meaning of '*? T\ is most uncertain (see phil. n.) ; (4) the sick-
ness, on this theory of interpretation, is not personal ; conse-
quently the change from the ist pi. in v.^^ to ist sing, in ^^^ is
unexplained and most improbable ; (5) whereas in vv.*-^2 perfects
mingled with imperfects describe the past, here, on the hypo-
thesis, a single pf. is used to describe the real future as against
that pictured by others.
14. 13T] ffi oi S^ KaTa\ei<pdivT€s iirl t^$ 7^5 (i><f>pavd^<T0VTai ; the subj. in ffi
is probably an interpretative addition ; cp. Lieb. — 14, 15. p Sy d'O i>nx
m.T ntf D'n "k3 ni.T naa D'tio] the overlined words or letters in themselves,
or in their present positions, seem doubtful, though a complete reconstruction
is better left unattempted. In particular I note, (i) en "k3, onna, D'D are
probably variants of one, or perhaps two, clauses. For D'D, (& read D'.tD or
D'lTD (t6 ddojp T^s 6a\6.<T(n\s) ; (2) instead of i'?n2<, (fSi probably read "hny (cp.
e.g. 13', Ps 104 (103)'*): this, of course, is wrong, but may point to an
original i^n!«' ; or, again, i'?njf may be a misplaced parallel to nao ; (3) or ffi's
m.T ni;) may be correct, and || to ni-T uv. See on the relation of <& to J^, Lieb. 's
full discussion. — 15. DnK3] (& om. Lowth, al. D"K3 — a poor parallel and
materially valueless if dm "kd be retained in v.^*'». An alleged significance of
the At. j<^ has been very precariously used to place on D'ik the sense North ;
see Ges., who also discusses other views. Unsatisfactory emendations are
□'TK'a (cp. Si) and d'^n?. — 16. '"? 'n] (& om. The other versions and MT
(']"j) understand 'n to mean my secret ; n is in Aramaic a loan word from
Persian ; it is used in Sir 8^® and may well have been used by some glossator
here. Most modem scholars treat 'n as an otherwise unknown derivative
from TW^y to be lean (cp. Niph. 17*) ; in this case it should be pointed 'D ;
but the meaning leanness is expressed by j'n'j lo^*, Ps 106^". — Dnj3 »^ ♦ik]
(& oial rois aderovaiv (cp. ^), i.e. onaaS '1K, which may possibly be the
correct reading and the original immediate sequence to ^"^Tih '3X. ® para-
phrases the remainder of the v., ol dderoOvTei rbv vdfiov. On v.*'"', see Lieb.'s
full discussion : the problems are far from solved.
17-20. The completeness of the World-Judgment.—
After the difficult and obscure parenthesis (vv.^^-i^), the prediction
of judgment on all mankind is resumed; and, first, ly, i8a. b, by
means of a different figure the thought of v.^^ is emphasised : few
will escape altogether, for to escape from one disaster will merely
be to fall into another; cp. Am 5^^. The lines recur with slight
variations in Jer 48^^, where they are applied specifically to Moab.
The germ of the saying seems to occur in La 3*^, though it is
by no means improbable that it is ultimately borrowed from
popular speech. — l8c-20. The physical phenomena that will
accompany or form the judgment : floods will descend from
420 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
heaven, the foundations of earth will quake, and earth itself will
split and crack and sway to and fro and fall to rise no more, like
one vast house which cracks, sways, and topples over when its
foundations are shaken by an earthquake. Few will survive
(^yyis. 17. 18a. b^^ y^^ ^jj jj^jg ^jjj happen ; strictly speaking, when the
earth falls to rise no more, human life should come to an end ;
but v.2^ and 25^ show that we are not to take the matter so
literally as that.
l8c. When t^e lattices of heaven have been opened^ "the
waters, which are above the firmament," stream down, whether
to destroy (Gn 7" 82 (P)), or to fertilise (2 K 72, Mai 3I0).
Here a destructive downpour such as was part cause of the
Flood is in the writer's mind ; such another downpour will form
part of the judgment. Yet not by water can Yahweh again
destroy all flesh (Gn 9^^) ; this time " the fountains of the great
deep " (Gn 7^^) will not break loose ; there will be no need of an
ark to preserve the remnant, but they must hide themselves from
the storm (2620). In figures i^^' 1^), meant, however, literally
enough, not too compatible with this picture of the downpour,
and incompatible with hiding in houses with doors shut (2620),
the writer predicts that the earth will burst and quake (cp. 13^^,
Hag 2^^-). — In the height] of heaven : DPD, as in v.21, is a
synonym for heaven, used in other (late) parts of the Book of
Isaiah and by other (late) writers : see 32^5 57!^ 58*, and below,
p. 472, no. 6. Burney {JThS xi. 446) suggests that it usually
denotes "explicitly or implicitly, the north pole or zenith of
the Ecliptic (Babylonian Anu\ i.e. the highest point of the
heavens, regarded as the abode of Deity." How much might be
implied by the downpour from heaven may be illustrated by
Sibyl. Books iii. 689 f., " And God will judge all . . . with over-
whelming rain, and sulphur will come down from heaven, storm
and hail, much and violent." — 20a. b. The swaying of the earth
is depicted by means of two bold figures — the unsteady gait of
a drunkard (cp. 29^, Ps 10727), and the unsteadiness of a slight,
temporary shelter (cp. i^). — 20C. The cause of all this is man's re-
bellion (ySJ'a, cp. 2 K i^) against Yahweh (cp. v.^ 2621), the King
of all. — 20d. Almost verbally from Am 5^, where it is predicated
of Israel. Du. well remarks that the poetic effect of the descrip-
tion of the " birth-pangs " of judgment in w.^^^-^o is undeniable,
the constant repetition of the word pN, the striking picture of
XXIV. 1 8-23 421
the colossal convulsions of Nature by means of the Hithpolels
and Hithpolals, and of the bursting and swaying of the earth by
the assonances, and the grand way in which (v.^o) the ethical
ground for the wild seething of the elements is allowed to appear.
He cites as a parallel Sibylline Books iii. 675 f., " Earth mother
of all things will in those days be moved by the immortal hand,
and the fish in the sea, and all the beasts of the earth, and the
innumerable kinds of birds, and all souls of men, and the entire
sea will shudder at the immortal Face ; and there will be terror.
The precipitous mountain tops and the vast hills will be rent,
and black darkness will become visible to all. Dim rents in the
mountains will be full of corpses : the rocks will stream with
blood. The finely built walls of hostile men will all fall to the
ground, because they have not recognised the law of the great
God and His judgment, but have all brutishly raised their spears
in attack on the Temple."
18. T^D . . . Vipo] Jer 48* p . . . 'JBD.— 19. In a. read jn for the
abnormal nij-^, and pK (as in b. c. ) for Y-^nn ; in both cases n is dittographic.
fflr omits c. The vb. yjn is an Aramaism for y^iX Other occurrences (mostly
questionable) are Ps 2»(MT), Jer ii^« 15^2, Job 34=", Pr 25" (Kal) ; Pr i8»<
(Hithpo.) ; on Is 8^ see n.— nmi£5nn nis] Che (SBOT) npnsnn pi-a (i K 19") ;
with ma (Poel, Ps 74^®'*) op. J i, to split.— 20. yu] (!R does not render this ;
ct. v.".
21-23. Judgment on the host of the height and the
kings of the earth : Yahweh becomes^ King in §ion. —
21 f. Yahweh will at that time judge all His foes both in heaven
and on earth, imprisoning both the host of heaven and the kings
of the earth, who had opposed Him, till the far off day of their
ultimate punishment. This is the last act before the terrors of
the end (vv.^-^* ^3- ^^^^o and ? ^-^'^\ which are succeeded by the New
Age of Glory for the survivors (v.^^)^ The writer is obviously
alluding to ideas which he presupposes as being well known ;
the best commentary on the passage is to be found in the (earlier
parts of the) Book of Enoch, which may have been not much
younger than this prophecy. Some details in the later writer
may have been developed by reflection on Scripture, pre-
eminently on this Scripture, but much that is there expressed is
the suitable and, therefore in all probability, the actual back-
ground of the present description — in particular is this the case
with the double judgment on the offenders, human and super-
422 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
human, imprisonment now and punishment at the end of
days ; for Di.'s attempt to give nipsi in v.^^c g, favourable mean-
ing, " be visited," so as to make the line assert that the persons
concerned will after imprisonment be restored, like Jehoiachin
(Jer 5231), j-Q Yahweh's favour and employed by Him as regents,
breaks down. On this and other details, see, further, below. Not
only is much that first appears in Enoch as old as this writer,
but the fundamental ideas are older still, and to be traced back
to Babylonian mythology ; but this does not necessarily mean,
nor is it probable, that their emergence in Jewish thought, or
at least their use in Jewish theology, was also early.
21. Yahweh will punish] lit. visit upon: cp. 27^. — Host oj
the height] height, as in v.^^, means heaven : hence host oj
the height is the equivalent of the term "host of heaven"
frequently occuring elsewhere ; and this meaning stands even if
the clause in the height and on the earthy omitted by (&, be not
original. In view of the parallel kings of the earth, the particular
reference in the host of the height is to those superhuman beings
who had been conceived of as rulers over men or as receivers
of men's worship, who had thus rebelled against Yahweh and
intruded on His sole sovereign rights, the apxat> 8uva/x€i9, i^ovaiai
iv Tots iTTOvpaviOL'S (or rov aepos, or tov (tkotovs), dpovoi, KvpLOTrjre^ of
the NT (Ro S^s, Col i^e, Mt 242^, Lk 2i26, Eph 3I0 2^ Col i^^- 1«,
Eph i2i. Col i^^). Such superhuman beings might include the
sun, moon, and stars, who, as " the host of heaven," had received
men's worship (Dt 4^^ 1 7^, Jer 8^, and often) ; and Enoch refers
explicitly to the imprisonment of " the stars of heaven, and the
host of heaven," but the sin charged against them by him is
that "they did not come forth at their appointed time" (iS^^^-;
cp. Jude 13). This writer is alluding here more particularly to
the patron angels (connected with the stars in Dt 4^^) of the
nations (Dn lo^s. 20f.^ sir 171^, Dt 328 (&; the "gods" of Ps
58. 82). — The kings of the earth, who, spurred on by the angels,*
have rebelled against Yahweh and His anointed people (Ps 2),
will also be punished, that Yahweh may reign in undisputed
majesty and glory on Mt. Sion (v.23). — 22. Rebellious angels
* Cp. En 56'' * * In those days will the angels return and hurl themselves
upon the East, upon the Parthians and the Medes, to stir up the kings and to
provoke in them a spirit of unrest, and rouse them from their thrones • . . ;
and they will march up to, and tread under foot, the land of his elect ones."
XXIV. 21-23 423
and rebellious human beings alike Yahweh will imprison in
a great subterranean prison, the Pit (cp. 14** n.). For the
subterranean prison, cp. 2 P 2* and En 10* "Bind Azazel hand
and foot and place him in the darkness : make an opening in
the desert . . . and place him therein, and place upon him
rough and jagged rocks, and cover him with darkness "; and 10^2
(of the bastard offspring of angels and women) " bind them fast
under the hills of the earth." To limit, as Di. does, the
punishment mentioned in v.^^ to one half only of the subject of
V.21, viz. the kings of the earth, and to interpret the pit of such
a pit as Jeremiah was committed to (Jer 37^^), is altogether
unreasonable. The fact that in v.^^*- ^ a part of the host of
heaven is specially mentioned after sP- is no reason for
exempting the whole of the host of heaven from the subject of
shall be imprisoned in v. 22, and so limiting the punishment of the
host of heaven to a loss of their brightness and of the human
worship rendered to them. If we had no other evidence of the
belief in the imprisonment of superhuman beings, such as we
have, we should be bound to infer it from this passage. The
general idea of such imprisonment is, however, differently
applied ; here it is punishment for intruding on Yahweh's
sovereign rights, in En. for the violation of the natural order
established by Yahweh. — And after many days they shall be
punished] lit. visited. The vb. IpD can be used of either a
gracious (23^^, Gn 21^, Jer 27^2), or a punitive, visitation: the
context must decide ; as there is no indication in the context of
a change from punishment to favour, it must here mean to
punish. The contrary cannot be argued from the fact that the
long detention before punishment is pointless; for, however
the idea arose, the idea existed; cp. En 10^* 9i^2ff.^ 2 P 2*. —
23. Yahweh's reign in glory on Mt. §ion. The white moon and
the glowing sun^ such is the force of the poetical terms here
used (cp. 3o2S), will pale before the coming manifestation of
Yahweh's glory. So well known was the idea, that the writer
does not need to state the cause so explicitly as in 6o^^-, and
therefore, instead of saying : For Yahweh will be instead of sun
and moon, he says, briefly and tersely bringing out the main
climax which he desires : For Yahweh will have become king (cp.
52"'); no more rebels (v.21) in heaven or earth, but the ever-
lasting kingdom, which all kingdoms shall serve and obey (Dn
424 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
y27. i4j^ y^iii j^ave its centre in Sion (cp. Ps 2). The writer is
dominated by the same ideas that govern the "accession"
Psalms. Cp. e.g. Ps 96 : there, too, Yahweh has become king
in §ion (Ps 96^^-), universal king over gods (Ps 96* = " host of
the height " here, v. 21), and the whole earth (cp. here " the kings
of the earth" and Zech 14^), which is called upon to sing to
Yahweh (Ps 96^^- ; cp. here ? v.^*) ; earth and heaven, instead of
mourning (Is 241*^*), exult (Ps 961^^-), and the earth, instead of
cracking, splitting, and quivering on its breaking supports (Is
2^^i9b. 20^^ yj\\\ become firm and unshaken (Ps 96). The emenda-
tions (see phil. n.) adopted, partly from (&, in the translation of
these lines does not materially affect the sense, with which cp.
4^, but secures a better couplet. As once on Mt. Sinai (Ex
24^'), Yahweh will manifest His glory to His elders, i.e. the elders
of His people. Thus this writer finds no place for a Messiah,
or for any other king than Yahweh Himself. When will the glory
of this kingdom be manifested — before or after the second and
final judgment of the host of heaven and the kings of the earth ?
If we press the order of the sentences, the later term would seem
to be the correct one, and this would correspond, it is claimed
(Du.), to the expectation in En (91^5^-) that the new heaven and
the age when " sin will no more be mentioned for ever " follows
" the great eternal judgment," i.e. the second and final judgment
on the angels (cp. Rev 20^1-^*). At the same time, once the
rebels were securely imprisoned, there could be no hindrance to
the actual completeness of the kingdom. The next scene is the
Coronation Feast which follows the accession to the throne
(25^-8); the sequence is interrupted by a song, 25^-^
21. CK om. Kinn Dva .t.ti, d^tds, and nDnNn-^y. — 22. ton n£3Dx] a verbal noun
enforcing isdk and governing TDK in the ace. (cp. 1 1* n. ) ; but read tokh f]DK ;
cp. 33^. — D'D' 3nDi] (K Sib. iroKKdv yevewv ; Lieb. D'D' am ; but was nps
applicable to the duration of punishment ? — 23. nna] ffir So^aer^Tjcerai ; read
n^a:. Possibly also nn and niK3s should be omitted with CEr, and also
D'?t5'iT3 ; then an excellent balanced distich 3 : 3 remains. f§ could be
taken as a rather rough 4 : 4 distich.
XXV. 1-5. — A song to be sung by Israel in celebration of
YahweKs wonders in deliverance.
The lines as marked in the translation are of three accents except v.
which in |^ is four, in CR three ; and "^^ which is four. Two distichs 3
Sb
XXIV. 21-23, XXV. 1-5 425
form a strophe ; the latter part of v.* and v." seem to be seriously corrupt ;
see, further, ZATW^ 191 1, pp. 1 17-123.
^ Yahweh, thou art my God,
I will exalt thee, give thanks to thy name ;
For thou hast achieved wonders.
Plans (formed) long ago, in perfect faithfulness.
* For thou hast made the city a heap,
The fortified town a ruin ;
The palace of the * presumptuous ' , . . ,
It shall never more be built.
* Wherefore the strong people shall glorify thee,
The city of the awe-inspiring a shall fear thee ;
* For thou hast been a stronghold to the poor,
A stronghold to the needy in his distress.
The noise of the presumptuous dost thou subdue a a
The song of the awe-inspiring * dost thou ' humble.
This poem lacks a rubric such as those which introduce the
other songs of this section (25^ 26^ 272). Yet, like the other
songs, this, too, is intended to be sung after the world-judgment
(ch. 24). The speaker is the Jewish community, which is now
poor and hard pressed by some undefined oppressing power.
Yahweh's wonderful deeds, which are the subject of the song,
will have been wrought in accordance with His counsels formed
long ago ; the wonderful deliverance of His people will not only
call forth their praise, but will so impress the mightiest people
and city of the world that they, too, will do homage to Yahweh
and become His worshippers.
What particular city is intended is as obscure here as in 24^®
(see n. there) ; moreover, it is not clear whether the ruined city
of V.2 is the same as the homage-rendering city of v.', or whether
" the awe-inspiring " of v.^ and v.*^ are identical.
la. b. Cp. 12^ n., Ps 54^ ii828 138^ 145^- — Achieved wonders]
Ex 15II, Ps 77^5 78^2^ — Long ago] cp. 22" 372^n. — In perfect
faithfulness] two synonyms |»N noiDK are combined to give a
superlative force; cp. 3^ 16^: but the second does not occur
426 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
again, and may be a liturgical addition Amen (cp. (&%)] the
distich balances better without it. For the construction pre-
supposed in the translation, see G-K. ii8$r; an alternative
translation would be plans are {perfect) faithfulness ; i.e. plans
long since formed are now actually performed and thereby
proved faithful: for the construction in this case, see Ex 17^^;
Dr. § 189 (2). — 2. The city . . . the town] the article is not
expressed in 5^ on account of poetical style : so the anarthrous
TV and |D"ifc< are used of Jerusalem in Jer 30^^: cp. also 27^^
below. It is possible, but less probable, that f^ means any city
indefinitely (Che. SBOT)y or, collectively, cities (ffir^E, Box). —
Palace'] 32^* and in pi., 34!^ 23^^ (p^^ ^m i* 3^*^ etc. — The
presu7nptuous\ ffi roiv da-ePtov = DHT : cp. 1 3^^ n. ; f§ DHT, aliens
(I'^'n., 6i^), is less expressive and, as the commoner word, the
easier and less probable reading; yet see 29^ n. — 3. The mighty
and terrible nation which oppressed the poor Jews, when it has
experienced the judgment of Yahweh (v.^), will recognise in
Him a mightier than themselves, acknowledge His glory, and
become His worshippers; or, since again the terms in J^ are
anarthrous,* the meaning may be that the overthrow of the
oppressing power will lead many another strong people to glorify
God. — A7ve-inspiring] 13I1 n., f^ (not ([5:) + nations ; see phil. n.
— Glorify thee] acknowledge Yahweh's glory (6^ n.) displayed
(2423 26^^) in nature or, as here, in history; see 24^^ 43^0,
Ps 22^*. — Shall fear thee] shall become fearers, i.e. worshippers,
of Yahweh ippf* ^K^^) : cp. Ps 65^ (8). — ^, Stronghold] a place in
which one seeks and finds refuge from weather or enemies : cp.
30^ n. and phil. n. — The poor . . , the needy] the Jews at present
suffering and oppressed (cp. 26^^): cp. 1/^^^ in.) 26^ 41^'^ for the
terms used as here, or with a more limited force, e.g., lo^ 11*. —
What follows the distich (^*- ^) down to the opening clause of
v.^, in so far as it shows rhythm and parallelism at all, differs in
character from vv.^'** ; either it contains, together with expansions,
a distich, or it is entirely intrusive matter that has caused the loss
of a distich which once stood before the distich preserved in v.^ ;
see, further, phil. n. — A refuge from the storm . . . a shade from
the heat] the clauses occur in an amplified form in 4^^; cp. 322. —
For the breath of the awe-inspiring is like a winter storfu] this
reads like a note on the previous clauses : the shelter and shade
* Go. prefers to emend and read ly 'Dy, and to point nnjp.
XXV. 1-5 427
of God was needed, for the breath of the awe-inspiring (v.*),
breathed out in hostility on the poor Jews, was Hke a storm or
heat : this is the only passage in which the breath of wicked man
is regarded as destructive of others ; elsewhere it is God's breath
that consumes, or bums, or floods away, those whom it affects
(see 3o28, Job 4^ ; cp. Ps 1 8^), or the breath of the Ruler of the
stock of Jesse which slays the wicked (n*), or the breath of the
wicked consuming themselves (?), 33^^. — A winter storm] or
downpour, before which who can stand unsheltered without
suffering (cp. Job 247^-, Ps 14 f^) ? So probably f^ (ij?, as Gn 822).
MT as a storm of a wall, has been explained hazardously as a
storm that overthrows a wall (Rashi, Ges.), or both ineptly and
hazardously as a storm that beats ineffectually against a wall
(Del.). — 5. As heat in a dry place] the clause is best taken as
a second comparison completing the last clause of v.^ MT
takes it with v.^, thus destroying rhythm and parallelism and
creating a most bizarre figure, p^ a dry place, occurs in ^z^- :
3in has the sense of heat in 4^, Gn 31*^*. — The noise of the pre-
sumptuous] cp. "the noise of them that rise up against thee,"
Ps 74^3 : for the presumptuous {(&), f^ has the aliens, cp. v.^ n.
For PN6J', the noise (17^^), Du., al. read, pw, the pride (cp. 13^^, also
Job 40^2) . but, unless with Du. we reject the last line of the v. as
a gloss, noise is a better parallel than pride to song, — At the end
of line a. there stand in f^ the words heat with the shadow of a
cloud, which is taken by some as a comparison : as heat is brought
low by the shadow of cloud, so is the song of the awe-inspiring.
Most improbable. The words are either a dittograph of the
similar clause at the beginning of the v., or another gloss.
I. nnn] (& om. : wrongly. — 19?'] instead of the pausal ^v^, to rhyme with
si^ijinK. — nij«y k'?s] parallel terms rather than a single clause (Che. SBOT),
wonderful plans (cp. 9"). — 2a. "I'yD] can only be very artificially explained as
a case of }D privative : thou hast made (the city) away from (being) a city a
heap. Read ry. (K ttAXcis = Ty (cp. 24^") rather than ony. SiSTU also take no
account of the d. — Sa^] rather Vj^ : (K e/j xOnw.. — 2C. poiK] scarcely collective
(Di.), nor is ffi's aiJrwv rd de/iiXia good evidence that a reading PMD'w
existed. — Tyo] not to be a city : the privative force of p is more possible here
than in a. ; yet the vbs. in such a passage as 7^ 17^ far more readily suggest
its use than does noj? here. 5'U agree with |^, but (5 ir6X(c)ij points to "I'y
Possibly owing to the eye of a scribe passing back after writing on? and before
writing n'?SD'? to the Ty before SaV, I'l'D was accidentally substituted for the
word which originally stood here, and which may have been either a third
428
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
synonym to ^i and nVsD, though not the non-form (17^ n.) 'yiD, or a vb.
meaning ikou hast (or is) overthrown^ or the like ; scarcely, however, Tyo
(J. D. Mich. : cp. vji, /<? change).— Z. If D'lJ, which was absent from fflr, be
omitted, this v. consists of two exactly balanced (3 : 3) and parallel lines.
It is, therefore, a mistake by disregarding the parallelism, and by conjectural
additions or transpositions, to represent it as containing two distichs (Bick.,
Che., Du., Marti, Box); Che. e.g. after Bick. restores as follows:
B'U nnp ly oy
liNT' D'jj'ny
[T3'D» nyiu] '3
For fuller criticism and discussion, see ZATW^ 1911, pp- 118-121. — ty Dy]
f& & \ab$ 6 irrwx<Js = '3y Dy ; not to be preferred to |^ ; note the parallel, and
see Lieb. — 4. liyo . . . nyo] one of these may have replaced a parallel and
synonymous term such as nono: cp. ii"n. ffir does not render the first. —
4C-5. The textual problems here are complicated and far from solved. It
must suffice to refer here briefly to points more fully discussed in ZA TIV,
191 1, pp. 1 17-123: see also Lieb. At the end of v.^ if ay Vs3 yv\ be
omitted as a dittograph or a gloss, there remains a distich marked by the
characteristic balance (3 : 3) and parallelism of the poem ; substituting Dm
((K) for Dm (fl) and ruyn for nay, this runs :
y'33n wii pKBT
myn D'jriy ydi
The second line is absent from ffir, and is rejected as a gloss on the first by
Du. : yet it is curious to find tdt glossing jiNr, and the gloss rhythmically equal
and parallel to what it glosses. Du. al. obtain a distich by combining v.**'
and the first of the foregoing lines (see under) :
mno Sx DiiD nono
but this lacks both balance and parallelism. It is possible that noriD was a
correct and misplaced variant of iiyo in v.** or *» : the following words ^s oniD
3 mno were read by ffl D?in h)( ohvn d"i.?d ; just below "I'p dit3 was either not
read by fflr, or rendered Avdpuiroi 6\iy6\l/vxoi, and all that corresponds in (E
to njy D'iiny tdi ay Sxa mn yjan is ols -^/tas irap^Sw/cas.
6-8. Yahweh's coronation Feast. — The continuation of
24^3 ; translated, p. 407. As a feast formed part of the ceremonial
of the coronation or solemn recognition of a king (i S ii^^ i K
j9flF. 25^^ sQ^ after his accession to universal sovereignty in Jerusalem
(2423), Yahweh gives a feast to all His subjects — not only to the
Jews, but to all the peoples. The kings and the patron angels,
who hitherto have confused the peoples and kept them from
recognising Yahweh as their sole lord and king, have been put
out of the way (2421^-) ; the writer does not express, even if he
XXV. 3-8 429
entertained (cp. 26^1 n.), the idea that the peoples, rid of their
kings, will withhold homage from Yahweh, and therefore does
not need to mar his picture of joyous feasting by referring to the
destruction (60^^^^ or misery (65^^^-), of any who may refuse to
acknowledge the king in Sion. He rather thinks of the incor-
poration of all nations in the new and universal kingdom which
will have its centre at §ion (cp. Ps 87), and of Yahweh's gracious
and tender care of all those of whatever nation who had suffered
under other kings (cp. i S S^^^^^) than Himself. His next picture
is of mankind with face hidden under the veil of mourning ; the
peoples come up to Sion (cp. 22-^), still wearing the garb of
mourning, of mourning for all their sufferings (24^^- ^7-20)^ for they
have not yet realised that affliction is past (cp. 33^®^-) ; Yahweh
sees the veil and, tearing it off, destroys it ; and on the face revealed,
when the veil is withdrawn, he sees the tears with which recent
anguish, and mourning for those who have died, have stained the
face, and He wipes these away — the last tears of mankind, for
death itself He has now destroyed. The passage closes with a
special reference to the Jews, Yahweh's peculiar people : all over
the earth, the Jews of the Diaspora as well as those of Palestine,
have in the days of anguish that are now past suffered the
reproach of the nations that knew not God ; this reproach Yahweh
will now remove.
The ideas that struggle for expression in these few verses are
many and great ; and it needs some imagination to expand the
hints and recover all that filled the mind of the writer. The
foregoing argument is in some of its details necessarily uncertain.
But there seems no reasonable room for doubt that we have here
one of the most catholic passages in the entire Old Testament, and
one of the tenderest presentations of Yahweh. The writer has
certainly not thought himself so clear of national limitations as
to make Mount §ion a thing indifferent in the future (Jn 421),
and it is probable enough that he conceived the kingdom of
Yahweh with other Jewish Hmitations; but we may with even
more confidence infer that he extended to the nations of the world
all that is tenderest in the Hebrew thought of Yahweh's relation
to Israel. There is no justification in the text for the narrow
turn given to the thought in ST and by Ki., and, more elaborately
in recent times, by Gratz : C paraphrases v.* " Yahweh of Hosts
will make for all the peoples in this mountain a meal ; and though
430 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
they suppose it is an honour, it will be a shame for them, and
great plagues, plagues from which they will be unable to escape,
plagues whereby they will come to their end."
The idea of the abolition of death is an advance on the
expectatation of greatly prolonged life in the New Age (6520); it
is expressed here in an isolated monostich between the account
of the abolition of the veil which reveals, and the removal from
the face of the tears revealed; and for this reason Du., al.
suspect that the line is an addition.
6. Yahweh of Host s\ these words would be unnecessary when
v.^ formed the immediate sequence to 24^^ : they make the line
in J^ very long. — For all the peoples] repeated in v.'' with the
parallel all the nations. — In this mountain'] Mt. Sion (cp. 24^3) ;
the writer was probably resident in Jerusalem (cp. Jn 421). — A
feast] the same word that is used in 5^2 . for the phrase to make
afeastfor^ i.e. to give a feast to, see, e.g., Gn 19^ 26^^. — The feast
of those who attain to the New Age, though without special
reference to Yahweh's accession, is referred to in Apoc. Bar. 29,
according to which the feast will be furnished by the flesh of the
great monsters Behemoth and Leviathan (cp. also 4 Es 6^'^,
En 60^*), and the same general idea underlies several passages of
the NT; see Mt 8", Lk 1328 1415 22^^^-, Rev 199. The feast
will consist of food, fat and rich, and of wine that has acquired
strength and flavour by remaining on its lees (cp. Jer 48^^) after
the first fermentation, and has been rendered clear by being
filtered before use. — 7» The text is uncertain, and seems to have
been read differently from J^, not only by ffir, but even by ^5E
Symm. (see phil. n.). If |^ is correct (the versions are not to be
preferred), the interpretation is most probably to be taken as
above : from the peoples of the world assembled in Mount Sion,
Yahweh will remove the symbols of mourning, for which there
will be no more cause. For the covering of the head as a sign
of mourning or grief, see 2 S 15^^, Jer 143^-, Est 6^2 — j%^ ^^//j
lit. the face, i.e. the outward surface turned towards the beholder,
of the veil', a curious expression after the vb. V?3 (3^^ 19^
La 2^-^ etc.), but a fairly close parallel occurs in Job 41^(1^). —
The web] the same word, differently applied, occurs in 2820. It
is a parallel to the veil of the previous line, and does not signify
a covering of the eyes which renders spiritually blind (Del. : cp.
2 Co 3^^). — 8a. Correctly paraphrased in Rev 21*, Kat 6 ^avaros
XXV. 6-12
431
ovK €(TTai €Ti ; cp. I Co 15*^ KaTtfToOr] 6 Odvaro^ ci? vlko^. The vb.
can, of course, be pointed as passive y^JB, but between vbs. of
which Yahweh is the subj. it is most properly treated as act. ; so
MT. St. Paul's €is viKos (so Aq., Theod.) rests on an Aramaic
sense of nv:^ (cp. e.g. Am i" in (5), and is incorrect. See,
further, above. — Ju?r Uis Yahweh hath spoken] 24^ n.
6. On (&, which is in no respect preferable to J^, see Lieb. ; but he is
wrong in tracing xP^trovrai fi6pov to ySn in v.' : this clause, representing pr
injyD' (cp. Am 6^), is all that ffi has for the last four words of v.* }^. It is a
mere accident that D'Dun h^h is omitted in MS Ken 23. — D'jor nnro] a feast
of fatnesses ^ i.e. of rich foods : cp. D'JDr K'J of a rich and fertile valley, and
the use of jD?', adj., and D'JDrD of what is eaten^ 3o2», Gn 49'*', Neh 8^°. —
D'TDB'] lees^ dregs (Jer 48", Zeph i^', Ps 75') is used by a striking brevilo-
quence for D'lor} ': ; that wine, not dregs, is intended, is clear from the last
clause of the v. Note the assonances in the v. d'tdb' — a'aDc and o'ppiD — D'nOD.
— D'noD] B.ir. Xe7. — a derivative from nb, marrow. On the form, see G-K.
T^dd. — 7. On ffi, see Lieb., but with the qualification noted on v.*. (!K omits
j;^3) ; in place of ^3 Vy tihr\ oiSn '3S it has ira/xiSos irdvra ravray and for naccni
njiojn, ii yhp /SouX^ aOrij. For laiVn oi*?.!, S (cp. tJT) has -^ ' ^ ^^ ] ^ " ^ ^,
tAe ruler that rules {i.e. Death), but 'JD creates a difficulty in the way of
accepting this otherwise attractive reading. — fiiVn] best taken as part, act.,
veiling : G-K. 72/ ; it might equally well be pointed as part. pass. BiVn (cp.
I S 21^°).— D'lan ^3 h]j'] & D'un '?3 ':s Vy.— 8. nw"? nion y'?a] (& KariTriev
b ddvaros /<rxi5(ras. Deaths prevailing^ swallowed {them) up ; Gratz proposes
oy^a\ And death shall swallow them (i.e. the nations) up for ever', this, of
course, would only be possible on the improbable interpretation of v.* that the
feast is intended for the confusion of the nations ; the transition, moreover,
from the general reference to the nations to the special reference to the Jews
only takes place after v.^** ; D'JB Va goes back to nnan ^3 in v.'. — 'jik] absent
from ffi, is probably another late addition to |^ : cp. Lieb. — m.T '3] (&. 'a '3
ni.T : cp. 24' n.
XXV. 9-i2. — A Song of Deliverance ; and the humiliation
of Moab.
v.* contains an initial formula and four lines arranged in two 3 : 3 distichs
(see n. on v.^). In vv.^*'"^* the rhythm seems irregular; but the text is
very uncertain.
® And it shall be said in that day : —
Behold, this is our God,
We have waited for him that he might deliver us :
This is Yahweh ; we have waited for him :
Let us rejoice and exult in his deliverance.
B
432
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
10 For the hand of Yahweh shall rest on this mountain,
^^^ And Moab shall be trampled down in its place,
As straw is trampled down in a dung-pit.
^1 And he shall spread out his hands . . .
• •••••■
And his pride shall be brought low . . .
I
And the fortifications the height of thy walls he hath abased,
Brought low, laid level with the earth, even to the dust.
9. The opening formula, and it shall be said in that day, does
not state that the song which follows will be sung by Jews (ct.
26^), but the contents of v.^ prove that this is intended ; it is
not to be sung by " all the peoples " of vv.^^-, but by those last
mentioned (v.^'^) who have long waited for, and have now ex-
perienced, Yahweh's favour. The song is, perhaps, confined to
the two 3 : 3 distichs (cp. 251'^) of v.^, and Di. may be right in
regarding vv.^^"^^^ or perhaps rather w.^*^^- ^^ as the writer's com-
ment : the song will have been justified by the overthrow of
Moab. Du., al. extend the song to v.^^, and see in v.^^ ^ variant
of 26^ : certainly the vocatives of v.^^ differentiate it somewhat in
tone from either v.® or ^^* — This is our God] or, our God is such :
if the rhythm of the v. is 3 : 3, MT is right in taking nt demon-
stratively (cp. Ps 48^'*) and not as a rare instance of nt relative
(see BDB 26i3).
10. The hand of Yahweh shall rest] Apparently this means :
the power of Yahweh will manifest itself, Sion will become the
centre of the universal kingdom (Du.): the idea is then that of
24^^, but the expression of it is curious. For the vb. ni3 in
different connections, see 7^ 112, and cp., especially, the noun in
11^^ The absence of an expressed obj. leaves it doubtful
whether (& is right in omitting T* and treating nj'' (so read instead
of njn = f^^) as Hiph., God (or, Yahweh) ivill give resty viz. to
Israel. — I?t this mountain] Sion : cp. v.^
lOb. Instead of the national enemies of Israel in general,
Moab is here singled out, as elsewhere Edom (ch. 34. 631*"-) in
similar descriptions. Saadia, therefore, renders Moab by ^^ the
nations^^ (Ges.). Why Moab is thus singled out is obscure, but
see above, pp. 403 f. Other descriptions of calamities befalling
Moab, or prophecies of the punishment of that people, are to be
found in chs. 15 f., Jer 48, Zeph 2^-^^, Ezk 25^^- The tone here,
XXV. 9-12 433
if the text of J^ may be trusted, is more than usually con-
temptuous, and the comparison of proud (i6^) Moab's end with
that of a man drowned in dung-water recalls the malignancy of
the saga that told of Moab's birth (Gn iqSO-").—/^ its place]
in its own land : this idiomatic use of nnn is not uncommon : see,
e.g.y 46^, 1 S 14^ 2 S 2^3. — As straw is trodden dmvn in a dung-
pit] so K.«re : K^tib in the water of a dung-pit. Madmenah^ with
which tnathben^ straw^ forms an assonance, is not only a common
noun meaning dung-place or dung-pit, but also, if the text of Jer
48^ may be trusted, the fem. form of the proper name of a
Moabite town. At most a doubleefitendre is intended : the writer
certainly did not mean merely in the water of Madmenah.
II. And he] viz. Moab personified; cp. i*n. ; the point of
the V. is pretty clearly this : do what he will, Moab will not
escape, but his pride will be humbled; but the text is very
uncertain : see phil. n. ]^ may be rendered literally, And he
shall {or ^ and though he: Dr. § 147) spread out his hands in his
midst as a sivimmer spreads out to swim, {and) one shall bring
low his pride together with (or, adopting a very rare use of oy
(Neh. 5^^), in spite of) the artifices of his hands. The idea of
swimming in a dung-pit while being trodden down is extra-
ordinary: Kennett (p. 68, n. i) suggests that "Moab is not
thought of as swimming, but as lying on the ground in the
attitude of a swimmer. A man who lies fiat on his chest with
arms and legs extended, with the foot of his enemy planted on
his back, is in a most helpless position." But had this been
intended, passives in v.^^ would have been more natural, and
" arms " rather than hands would have been specified : and his
arms shall be spread out like the arms of a swimmer would require
a very different text from the present. dSt does not recognise
any reference to swimming, and the original text may rather
have referred to Moab's fruitless prayers to his god to save him
in his distress (see phil. n.). — 12. See above, and cp. 26^
9. i"? lyip rwn' m ijyan'i i"? >rip ni ^yrhH r^ri] the original text of (!K
omitted the overlined words, but rather owing to homoioteleuton, which
subsequently led to the omission of the same words from MS Ken. 30, than
to their absence from the Hebrew text of that time. Du., al. omit mn* nj
"h inp, but retain uyriM.— 10. njono 'D3] K«tib '??, K«re v:3 ; but probably
enough even the K*tlb is a vocalic addition to n^r^iD D3 which arose from
n32"iC3 by dittography of the 0. The Versions certainly did not read '03 ;
VOL. I. — 28
434 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
whether they read 1D3 or 3 cannot be determined. — For njoio, ffi has &fxd^ais
= n3DnD or D'jno. — ii. vt a-nai] tyis with on' or D'sd is commonly used else-
where of the gesture of prayer: see, e.g., i^^, Ps 143^; and tiis sense it may
possibly have had here in the original text : see following notes. — nnpn] the
masc. sing, suffix does not refer naturally either to 'D or njmo. The word is
possibly not original : fflr omits it. — trns'] (& Kai airds : since this makes no very
obvious or easy sentence in ffir, we may infer that (& actually read Kini instead
of trns'.— ninB'^ nnrn] i& iraireivioaev tov diroX^aaL = nnefh (n)nB'n = |^^ y.^'^" *»
is certainly difficult in f^, and may be merely a makeshift accommodation to a
corrupt text of which (& in some points preserves a purer form. Lieb. may be
right in suspecting that the original referred to Moab's fruitless appeal in his
distress to his God, though his actual reconstruction of the text is far from
certain : he proposes nne'S Mne^n Kim riD3 Sk vt rnsi. — ^"s&m] (K^ xal
Ta'jreivu6'/ia€Tai = hs-^n], — iniNi] since the figure of swimming is very un-
certain, it is unwise to postulate unknown meanings for niN3, such as his
rising, which might suit the figure better. — nrnx] n^nx is dw. \ey. : cp. the
masc. 2-)k in Hos 7^, Jer g' ; but the word is uncertain here. — 12. aj^D nstno]
®r Kai rb V^os r^s /cara^iry^s, which is probably a double rendering of DJ^D.
In this case fflr's text lacked nsnn. Note (i) C^os in ffi never renders nsao ;
(2) KaTa<f)vyr] occurs nowhere else in Is., though 13 times in Pss., 4 in the
Pent., and i each in Jer., Dan. (Theod.), and 2 Mace; (3) ajro, which
is very variously rendered, = Kara^vyij twice in Pss. ; (4) 2iVD occurs but
once elsewhere in Is. (33^*), and is there rendered laxvpb^: but ^iv=ii'^ovv
in 2^'* " 12*. — ^'flJS'n ncn] (& omits one of these.— px"?] ffi omits.
XXVI. 1-19.
Du. appears to have perceived correctly the remarkable and unusual
rhythmical structure of vv.^"^^. The poem consists of periods of six accents,
which are divided into two equal sections (3 : 3) by a caesura, or into three
equal sections (2:2:2) by a double caesura (cp. i^* *). Parallelism occurs,
though it is by no means consistently used. Where the rhythm is 3:3,
parallelism, if it occurs, occurs between these sections of the entire rhythmical
period ; where the rhythm is 2:2:2 the parallelism is between two of the
three sections ; or there is partial parallelism of the middle section with each
of the other two ; so in v. 2.
In the translation the lines correspond to the sections of the periods of six
accents, and the arrangement will show whether these periods divide into
3 : 3 or 2 : 2 : 2.
The words in small print destroy the regularity of the rhythm : in some
cases there are independent reasons (see Comm. and phil. nn. ) for suspecting
that they are intrusive. In addition the following irregularities, whether
original or due to textual corruption, are to be noted : — v.*^ is longer by a
word than 5® if n'?*£3t!" -uS'St?' be retained : 7** *» in J^ is 3 : 4, but J^ is almost
certainly corrupt : v.* in |^ is irregular : Du., Cheyne make of it two irregular
periods, first 3 : 2 and then i : i : 2 ; see below for other possibilities :
yy 9b-i2b contain several uncertainties of rhythm, and also much that is
textually uncertain (see below). V.^^"** J^ (not ®) is 2 : 2 : 2 : 2.
XXV. II, 12, XXVI. I-I9 435
^ In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah :
A strong city is ours,
Salvation doth he make
Its walls and outworks.
* Open the gates.
That the righteous nation may enter,
(Even he) that keepeth faith.
* The steadfast disposition
Dost thou maintain unharmed.
Because it trusteth in thee.
* Trust ye in Yah we h for ever.
For Yah Yahweh is an everlasting Rock.
* For he hath brought low
The inhabitants of the height,
The city set on high;
He abaseth it even to the earth,
He bringeth it even to the dusL
* The foot shall trample it,
The feet of the poor,
The footsteps of the needy.
f The path of the * upright * is even ^ ,
The track of the righteous thou levellest.
8 Yea, for the path of thy judgments —
O Yahweh we have waited for ^ thy name.
And for thy memorial hath been the desire ol
our soul.
8 With my soul have I desired thee in the night,
Yea, with my spirit within me do I seek thee
earnestly.
When thy judgments (come down) to the earth (?),
The inhabitants of the world
Learn righteousness.
10 [No] favour shall be shown (?) to the unrighteous ;
He hath not learnt righteousness
In the land of truth;
He acteth wickedly . . . ,
And seeth not
The majesty of Yahweh.
436 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
^^ Yahweh thy hand is exalted ;
They behold (it) not;
They shall behold and be ashamed.
• ••••••
Yea, a fire shall consume ^ thy adversaries.
" . . . O Yahweh . . .
Thou wilt appoint for us welfare j
For even all our works
Hast thou done for us,
^^ O Yahweh, our God.
(Other) lords (?) beside thee have owned us,
But of thee (?) only we will make mention, (even)
of thy Name.
1* The dead shall live not.
The shades shall rise not;
Therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them.
And caused all their memorial to perish.
^5 Thou hast added to the nation, Yahweh, thou hast added to the
nation, thou hast shown thyself glorious ;
Thou hast greatly extended all the borders of the
land.
^^ Yahweh in distress ' we ' sought (?) thee,
'We cried out because of oppression,'
When Thy chastisement was upon 'us.'
^"^ As a woman with child.
When she is near giving birth.
Writhes crics out in her pangs.
So were we
Because of thy presence, O Yahweh ;
18 ^Ve were with child, we writhed, when we gave birth, (lo !)
wind.
We could not make the land safe.
And the inhabitants of the world did not fall.
i»Thy dead shall live,
' Their ' corpses shall arise ;
They that dwell in the dust,
'Shall' awake and give a ringing cry.
For the dew of ... is thy dew,
And the earth shall give birth to shades.
XXVI. I-I9 437
The rubric, v.^, fuller than in 25^ 27^, quite clearly defines
what follows to be a song which is to be sung in the land of
Judah in that day^ i.e. at the time when Yahweh will have
delivered His people, and begun His glorious reign in Jerusalem
(2423). The rubric does not, of course, define the limits of the
song ; and it is only the opening verses which are strictly suitable
to the occasion. Moreover, in vv.^"^, with the exception (in the
present text) of v.^ Yahweh is the subject and is spoken of in the
3rd pers. : in vv.^"^^ Yahweh is addressed. For these reasons we
might regard the song as closing with v.* ; but it has been very
pertinently observed in regard to w.^-^^ that " the verse-connec-
tion is as a rule very close, and just at those points where some
critics have recognised a discontinuity of thought {e.g. after v.'^
or v.^° or v.^^) the phraseology presents indications of a studied
transition. The poem, indeed, is remarkable for its concatenated
structure : that is to say, a word or idea is taken up from one
verse and suggests a new thought for the next (w.^^- ^^- ^^- ^- ^^' ^^f.
17*^" (Skinner). An additional common feature that binds
together w.^"^^ is the peculiar rhythmic structure : see above.
Either, then, an already existing poem (cp. pp 401 f. above)
was here inserted on account of the suitability of the opening
verses, or else the influence of the ideal situation with reference to
which the opening verses were written weakens as the poem pro-
ceeds, and the writer expresses his hopes and reflections during
the night (v.^) of sorrow through which he is passing rather than
the triumphant joy in Yahweh's deliverance and the overthrow of
"the city (now) set on high" (v.^) which he expects His people
to experience when night has given place to morning.
There are several corrupt or obscure passages in the poem,
and these are discussed in detail in the Comm. as they arise ;
but the line of thought and the relation of ideas within the poem
seem to be as follows :
The Jews exult in Jerusalem made impregnable, v.^, and
refilled with righteous observers of the law, v. 2, but only with
such, v.^^; they find in Yahweh's maintenance unharmed of
those who steadfastly relied on Him, v. 5, and whose loyalty to
Yahweh no temptations had shaken, v. ^3, ground for continued
and enduring trust in him, v.*. The other side to the exaltation
of Jerusalem is the humiliation and destruction of the City now
set on high, w.^^-, and of all Yahweh's adversaries, v.^^®.
438 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
All this has not yet happened ; but there are steadfast minds,
v.^, waiting for Yahweh's judgments, vv.''^-, or renewed judgments
(cp. v.^), to teach the world righteousness. But even in Judah,
the land of true religion, there are wicked men who are contu-
maciously neglectful of the law, and blind to the majesty of
Yahweh that was to be revealed, and even then was revealed to
the eye of faith, vv.^^^-.
The Jews of themselves had achieved nothing ; all that has
yet been achieved is Yahweh's work, the pledge of what He will
do for His people who, though aliens have exercised political
dominion over them, have never swerved in their religious
fidelity to Him, vv.^- 1^. But once these tyrants have been
destroyed by Yahweh (v.^^®), they being dead cannot rise and
again afflict the Jews, v.^*.
Already in fact, or to faith, the Jews have grown and
their land has been enlarged, v.^^ ; but once again the
writer insists that the misery — "the night" of v.^ — through
which the Jews have been passing as a chastisement for
their sins (v.^^'') had not been (or will not have been)
escaped by their own efforts: they had not made the land of
Judah safe (cp. v. 2), nor overthrown their foes (cp. vv.^^- ^^^);
this was Yahweh's work alone, w.^^-^^. Nor will the power
of Yahweh be exhausted in re-establishing His people who
have survived on earth the perils past : He will raise from
the dead the Jews who had died, and these will resume
on earth the ordinary earthly life, and join their fellows who
had not died in praising God in the land of the living, v.^^.
1-6. Jerusalem made impregnable; the city set on
high destroyed. — I. The strong city that belongs to those
who in the land of Judah sing this song is, though unnamed,
unquestionably Jerusalem ; the unnamed subject is Yahweh
rather than indefinite. The walls and outworks^ or outer wall
(}T\ ; cp. 2 S 20^^, La 2^, Nah 3®), are made impregnable : cp.
3320^-. The words might have been written for an ideal situation
(see above), or for some such actual occasion as the solemn
dedication of the rebuilt walls of Jerusalem (Neh la^-'-^s).
According to an alternative, but less probable, interpretation,
the V. means that Yahweh's saving presence will serve the city
instead of walls; cp. Zee 2®, Ps 125^. Another, but improbable,
alternative would identify the city with God (cp. Ps 61*): "urbs
XXVI. 1-6 439
fortitudinis nostrae Salvator est, id est Jesus. Et ponetur in ea
mums et antemurale. Mums bonomm opemm, et antemurale
rectae fidei, ut duplici septa sit munimento" (Jer.). — 2. Under
the form of an address, not to angels (Jer.), but to the gate-
keepers (cp. Ps 1 1 8^^), it is made clear that those only will have
right of entry into the city who are righteous (cp. i^^ ; ct. v.^®),
and keep faith with Yahweh by observance of the law: cp. 33^*
358-10, Ps 15. 2/^-^. — 3. The steadfast disposition] ^10D (cp. Ps 1 128)
means well-stayed (on God), steady^ undisturbed by fear, and
expresses very much what Isaiah expresses differently in 7* 30^*.
The noun "IV^ (cp. the vb. in 22^1 2>l'^^) commonly denotes in OT
the purpose formed by man (Gn 6^ S^i, Dt 3121, i Ch 28^ 29^8),
but here rather disposition — a transition to the meaning in the
Rabbinic technical terms 31Dn "IV^ and jnn "ly, the good and evil
impulse formed by God; and this Rabbinic usage may have
affected U, vetus error abiit. — Unharmed] cp. Job 5^^; or we
might render in welfare : cp. e.g. Gn 43^^, and see 9^ n. : RV
in peace is less satisfactory. The repetition of the word in f^
would imply a superlative idea (G-K. 133^), /^^r//y unharmed \
but it is not supported by ffi, and is probably due to dittography.
— YahweK] J^ in Yah (12^ n.), Yahweh \ but see phil. n. — Rock]
1 7 10 n. — 5, 6. Yahweh has just given proof that the trust (v.^) of
the righteous (v. 2) in Him is well founded : for He has, according
to His wont (Ps 75^'^^), exalted the poor and lowly (v.^), and
humbled the proud (v.^). He has laid in the dust the City that
seemed out of reach, too high (nnaJJ'J, cp. Dt 2^^, Ps 20^ 698O 91I4
139^, Pr 18^0 2925) to be taken, challenging His sole exaltation
(cp. 2I1 1 2* 33^), and has brought low (cp. 2^- 1^) its inhabitants^
who deemed themselves high up out of harm's way, secure in the
height {c^. 33^^, Ps 75^); He has given over the city to be trampled
under foot (cp. Mai 3^1 (4^)) of the righteous Jews whom by its
oppression it had made, and in its pride regarded, zspoor{2^'^ n.)
and needy (3^^^')*
I. nn'] Hoph. here only ; |^^ "W was probably meant to be Hiph. : cp.
fflr (pi. as in 25^). — u*? iy Ty] MT liS-iy Ty, the city is a strength for us, but
makkeph rather, laS iy~i'j; (cp. Pr iS***). ffiS om. 13'?; (5 prefixes I806 (a
dittograph of 'Ioy5[a/as]?). — noin n'B" nyir'] on the alternative constructions
possible, see Dr. § 195. — Note the two assonances nic" nyir' and hm niDin. —
2. K3'i] (KS om. 1— D'3DK] Pr 13" 14' 20« (Ps 31^?): sing. Dt 32^f.—3,
•)}in . . . ns'] another assonance. For "iJf' Origen's Hexapla has learpo, i.e.
440 . COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
n!£' : the suffix would refer to pnx ('U), and the first two words of the v. would
be not an ace. clause but a sentence. — di'?b' n"i'?E'] the second n^htff is probably
a dittograph : but see Lieb. — 13 '3] |^^ 333 (cp. 8^ n.) may have been an error
for 33 = ia '3, and "isn above an error for i^' : then Yahweh would be referred
to in this v. as throughout vv.^"^ in the 3rd pers. — ^1^^3] pass, part., trusting'.
cp. Ps 112', and see Kon. iii. 235a?; for the omission of the subj. see Dr.
§ 135 (6). — 4. Q'O^iy "iii£ ni.T n'3 '3] ffi 6 ^e6s 6 /t^7as 6 a^civtos ; .T3-'3, prob-
ably absent from ffi's text, may be a corruption of nin'3, a correct marginal
variant of ni.T, Trust ye in Yahweh for ever, in Yahweh the everlasting
Rock, n'3 '3 would involve a remarkable use of |i : see BDB 89 a (top). —
5. DiTD '3B"] according to Marti this is a play on the name jitdb' : cp. 25^ n.
Cp. 25^2, which may consist mainly of variants on this v. — rh^tna'' ruV'SB"]
probably another case of dittography. (&. has no equivalent for pK ny naS'SJt?' ;
on the other hand, at the beginning of the v. Taireivibaas Kar-^yayes is more
than equivalent to nvn and perhaps represents ^'Bbti nrn (cp. 25^2 T^y Su^h
a reading in itself would be, on grounds both of rhythm and parallelism,
altogether improbable ; but it is barely possible that v.^ originally consisted
of two 3 : 3 distichs :
miD '3B" nJ!'iT'3
yiH ny rch'sv
Tsy ny mn^'y
6. njDDin] the 3rd rhyme is nj-?- within a few words. — '^n hyi] another case of
dittography? But the mere omission of *?:"> ((55) would leave the rhythm
irregular. Lieb. rejects ^3t and conjecturally supplies n33"nn after D'Vn : this
would make v.^ a distich 3 : 3. The sing. vb. might stand before either
^jn sing, or (G-K. 145^) '^JT pi. — 'Jy] read D"3y : cp. a'hi, and see dSc.
7-1 1. Waiting for Yahweh's discriminating judg-
ments.— 7* ^o^ makes for the righteous a smooth way of life
free from stumbling-blocks such as cumber the way of the wicked
and cause them to fall : the righteous thus pass through life
easily and free from disaster. Cp. for the phraseology or
ideas of the v., Ps i^, Pr 3^ 4^^ 5^- ^i nS. It is most improbable
that nC''' refers to God, T/iou that art upright (RV) ; but on the
text see phil. n. — 8. Speaking in the name of the community,
the writer claims that they have patiently and longingly waited
(25^) for the manifestation of Yahweh's power. — For the path of
Thy Judgments] this entire clause is perhaps made up of a
dittograph from path in v.^, and a gloss {Thy Judgments) on
Thy name'y the original rhythm of v.^ would then have been
normal (3:3); or, if the rhythm was abnormal (3:3:3) the clause
may be taken as the object of the vb. emphatically placed first,
and then resumed by an equivalent expression (cp. Dr. § 197,
Obs. 2) ; but either Thee (J^), or Thy name {(&) would be a
XXVI. 4-1 1 441
strange permutative of the path of thy judgments. Reading
13^1p we might render, For the path . . . have we waited ; For
thy name and for thy memorial^ etc.; but this (Hke MT, RV)
would give a very abnormal rhythm (4 : 4), and would crowd
two parallel terms into a single line. — Name . . . memorial]
the expressions are synonymous : see Ex 3^*, Ps 30^ W. Yahweh
makes His name remembered (Ex 202-*) by some striking mani-
festation of His presence and power. — The desire of our sou/] this,
the reading of ffi, is doubtless correct : it is tacitly adopted by
RV. 5^ omits our. — 9. Reinforces v.^ ; but, if ^ is correct, with
a transition from the ist pi. to the ist sing., such as often occurs
in the Psalms: see, e.g., Ps 443-5(4-6), — /„ /^ night] cp. 2iii'- —
Within me] cp. Zee 12^, Ps 39* 55^(4) 10922. ffi omits the
word altogether. — pc. d. e, 10. The desire for the manifestation
of Yahweh's judgment or power is based on experience (HD^
pf. of experience) : when the judgments of God no longer remain
high out of sight of the wicked (Ps lo**), allowing him to flatter
himself that he can sin on with impunity, but come down to
earth, then the inhabitants of the world at large learn righteous-
ness, though the wicked do not do so, with the result that the
wicked are punished (Ps g^^i^'O), Something like this seems
to be intended, if ^ is in the main correct; but the text
of f^ and (& differ considerably, and the original text cannot
be detected with any certainty, and some of the more exact turns
of thought remain very obscure ; but apparently this writer
distinguishes, whereas the author of Ps 9^^ seems to identify, the
inhabitants of the world (18^), i.e. the heathen nations, and the
unrighteous. Convinced by Yahweh's judgments of His power and
Godhead, the nations learn righteousness of life from the God of
the Jews (cp. 22-^). But there is a class of wicked people who
persistently shut their eyes (5^2 n.) to the majesty of Yahweh
(12^) and refuse to learn and follow the way approved by Him,
though they live in the land of uprightness. If the last phrase
means, as it probably does, the land of Judah, then the unrighteous
of v.^^ are not heathen (13^^ i4^'") but Jews, and the meaning is :
when Yahweh manifests His power the very heathen will adopt
His ways; but the ungodly Jews are past recovery in their
wickedness, and (v.2) will have no right of entry into Jerusalem.
— \J^^] f<^'vour shall be shown] for the conjecture and views of the
cstr., see phil. n. |^ might be translated shall the unrighteous
442 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
receive favour ? (No), ke hath not, etc. — In the translation above
of vv.^®*®" ^^ f^ is closely followed ; an alternative translation
based on a text tentatively reconstructed with reference to ffit as
well as to f^ and to rhythmical considerations is now given :
^ For thy judgments are a light ;
The inhabitants of the world
Have learnt righteousness (cp. 6o^-s).
^® The unrighteous shall cease to be
That learnt not righteousness
In the land of uprightness.
The wicked shall be taken away (cp. 57^),
And shall not see
The majesty of Yahweh (cp. 2423).
II, The wicked (v.^^) do not yet perceive the power of Yahweh,
that it is He who really achieves all things (v.^^)^ ^ut ti^gy goon
will see it is to their confusion : Yahweh will consume them with
fire (cp. 30^^ 33^*)- — Thy hand is exa/ted] cp. Dt 32^7; the
uplifted hand is power in action as the dropped hand is absence
of power, or power held in check ; cp. 2 S 4^ 17^ 24^^ — Line d.
omitted from the translation above is corrupt ; instead of the
three words required by the metrical structure two only survive
in ^ : dStf ^rjXo's Xrnixl/trai Xaov aTratScvroi/, may have had more ;
but see Lieb. f^ makes no sense, whether connected with what
precedes (cp. RV) or with what follows. It is altogether
improbable, apart from the violation done thereby to the regular
metrical structure of the poem, that ny nN3p, jealousy for the
people, is ace. to they shall see (line a.) in spite of the intransitive
vb. intervening, so that the sentence would read they shall see,
and be ashamed, the jealousy for the people. Mic 7^^, to which Di.
appeals, is a good parallel for the general sense, none at all for
such an extraordinary construction. RV really implies two
conjectural emendations — the transposition of the two vbs. Itn''
and "Wy^, and "joy for Dy. Others take Dj; n^<:p, or, emending,
■]0V nwp, as a first subject of the vb. at the end of the v., and
XQndiQX jealousy for (or, of) the (or, thy) people, yea, the fire of {i.e.
ordained for) thy adversaries will consume them. Jealousy of the
people might mean either jealousy displayed by the people, i.e.,
the Jews, or jealousy (9^) displayed by Yahweh for (cp. Ps 69^°)
J
XXVI. 7-14 443
the Jews. Originally line d. probably consisted of three words,
and was parallel in sense to line e. ((5) as translated above.
7. The V. contains seven words, whereas the rhythm requires but six.
■MS" in its present position is not satisfactorily accounted for, whether explained
as a vocative addressed to God, as in apposition to the subj. of D^en, or as a
second ace. to that vb. Du., al. therefore reject it. More probably nr* is the
misplaced parallel to pn!< in lineb. ; omit p'"t^h, which, coming up from line b.
pnx'?[3yD], drove out ne", and read "W- mn. For other examples of accidental
repetitions of the same term to the exclusion of one of the synonymous terms
in parallel lines, see 24® n. ii*n. — 8. TJip] read with Lowth, al. unp. — »)k
ni.T ytisvQ mN] (& ^ y^p d56s Kvplov Kplffn. — efsi] CSC ij^bj : in |§ the
suffix was lost before 'vsi.—ga. b. dK omits in'iK vffOi, ^jk, and '3np3, but adds
6 debs at the end of b. |^ is to be preferred. — 'mn . . . veay] each word is a
*« double subject " ; lo^o n.— TincK] ffi dpdpl^ti ; but it is questionable to read
on this account Tnvn and above I^jn — vbs. 3rd sing. fem. — irna "2] (5 Silm
0a;s = TiK '3 or (8^ n.) TIK3. Possibly <& is right, and pn"?, which would then
overload the line, a gloss. Bick., Du. omit n^Ka as a prosaic variant of '3.
If "wva be retained, cp. for the form of sentence 23'. — 10. piJ« "xh ^3 yen jn']
this would be a very exceptional form of hypothetical sentence (Dr. § 155 :
cp. 1367). Either ^3 was lost through haplography after Ssn (Marti), or
|n' is an error for hixv (or Vnn) : (& TriwavTai ydp. — hiy^ nin33] (& dX-^Oeiav ov
fi7) TTonJaet' apdifTU) 6 d<repi^$ = h}]ii^ fjpHi: n8'j;(') ^3 ninD3 ; this may be nearer
the original text than J^, nis'y, however, being a variant of loV. Possibly v.'*>
once read
nin33 pK3 I pix nD'?-'?3 | vvn hiw
mn» niKJ | hkt V31 | Siyo ^ok»
With ^lyo II ytn, cp. Ps 71*.— n'.T] probably a dittograph of m.r, ▼.*•.
12-19. The Jews achieve nothing for themselves,
but Yahweh everything for them, including the raising
from the dead of those of them who had died. Cp.
Ps 44^'^. — 12a. If the rhythmical structure is maintained, two
words have been lost here. — I2b-d. National welfare (v.* n.)
must come from Yahweh; the Jews themselves can achieve
nothing. — 13. Politically the Jews have passed into other owner-
ship (cp. i^) than that of Yahweh (cp. 63^^); lords (19^), i.e.
foreign rulers, have made Judah part of their property; yet,
though the Jews have not been politically free, they have not
acknowledged the right of any except Yahweh to own them :
they have been loyal to their religion, not confessing any other
God (cp. Ps 4418-23(17-22)^^ (^^ if correct, would express very
indirectly what J^, which is not free from difficulty (see phil. n.),
expresses directly. — 14. No more will a foreign yoke rest on
the Jews, for Yahweh has destroyed these alien rulers, banished
.h
444 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
all memory of them, all that would call them to mind, such as
foreign coinage, taxes, and the like; these lords are dead men
all, shades (14^) that will never return to vex the earth (14^^
Jer 51^^- ^''). The writer shares the old view (cp. Job 14^^)
that, so far as mankind at large is concerned, there is no resur-
rection, no ascent from the realm of the shades to a fuller or
higher life. For the Jews he has a different expectation (v.^^) :
resurrection is national, not universal. — Therefore] the therefore
indicates not "a consequence of v.* but the development of what
is implicit in it" (cp. 61^, Jer 2^3 52, job 342^ (BDB 487a).
15-19. The writer is certain (prophetic pf. in v.^^) that
Yahweh will magnify the Jewish nation and extend far and
wide the borders of their land (cp. 9* 33^^^ 54^^')* ^^^ chas-
tisement (v.^^) had meant distress, foreign domination, and
decaying population, and that the Jews could make no headway
against their foes (v.^^^); but Yahweh will listen to the cry of
His people, withdraw His chastening hand, achieve for them
(cp. v.^2) what they could not achieve (cp. v.^^), making their
land secure, enlarging it, and filling it with inhabitants by calling
back to life those Jews who had died loyal to their religion
(v.^^, cp. v.^^). — 15. Thou hast added\ "spoken from the stand-
point of the future" (Dr. § 20 n.). Di. objects that this is
" impossible " after the perfects of vv.^^f. . but on his own view
the perfects of vv.^^-ie ^^{^1 to different periods: vv.^^f. recent
past, v.i^ the days of David and Solomon, v.^^ the recent past
again. His alternative view, that the sentence may be interro-
gative— Hast thou increased the people as thou didst promise (Hos
2iS Mic 2i2f., Is iii4 49i9ff. 54if., Jer 301^, Ezk 36ioff— is most
improbable. Others give the imperative a precative force : Add
to the nation (cp. CEr) ; but this is illegitimate (Dr. § 20), unless
we prefix "h as in 63^^ (Cond.), and then the form of the wish
is not very natural: O that thou hadst added to (Dr. § 140); in
the hour of distress their wish would have been for deliverance
rather than enlargement. The only alternative to the view taken
above which is worth considering, is that, like w.^^f.^ it refers
to the recent past : Yahweh has already not only overthrown
the foreign domination, but also widely extended the borders
of Judah ; Du., Marti, who interpret thus, see in v.^^ a reference
to the extension of Jewish territory by John Hyrcanus. But
this fails to do adequate justice to v.^8^ and less naturally leads
XXVI. 1 5-1 8 445
up to v.^^ — Thou hast shown thyself glorious'] cp. 24'^ as emended,
Ezk 28^2 39I3. 5^ could be rendered glorious things^ an ace. to
thou hast added (Oc); but the parallel supports MT. — Thou
hast greatly extended] lit. thou hast made far away^ viz. from
the centre of the land : for the sense of great distance suggested
by pm and its derivatives, see, e,g.^ 6^2^ Ps 103^2. — All the borders
of the land] of Judah : the same phrase with another sense in
Ps 48" 65<'(5). — 16. In distress] 25*. — We sought] J^ has they
sought; but note ist pi. in ^^f. and ^^^-j and that there are signs
of corruption in this v. — We cried out because of oppression] the
translation follows Cheyne's emendation, J^ is altogether im-
probable : it ought to be rendered they melted (Job 28^) a charm
(38 n., Jer 8^^, Ec lo^^ : cp. Is 3^®t), and this has been supposed
to mean, they poured out a whisper^ i.e. they prayed* (in a low
voice). Lieb. attempts a different reconstruction of the text,
which might be rendered, thy visitation involves distress^ thy chas-
tisement of us constraint and oppression. See, further, phil. n. —
17, 18. The elaboration of the figure (cp. Hos 13^^, Mic 4^°) in
this connection may have suggested the later technical term for
the troubles which were expected to herald the Messianic age,
n-C^cn 'hin^ " the birth-pangs of the Messiah." — So were we] (& ■¥
to the beloved: on this (? Christian) addition see Lieb. i. 42-44. —
Because of thy presence] to chastise us (cp. v.^®), (& 8ia tov ^o^ov
(Tov : for the phrase, cp. e.g. 64^ (63^^), Jer 42^. — 18. When we
gave birthf {lof) wind] rhythmically the words appear to be
superfluous, and they may be a gloss intended to complete the
figure so as to make it applicable to the two following lines —
all our distress issued in wind, i.e. nothing; cp. 412^, Ec i^*.
Ges. discusses at length the supposed reference to the symptoms
of pseudo-pregnancy. — l8b. C We could not, as Yahweh can
and will (v.^), deliver our country from the enemy : the inhabit-
ants of the world (v.^), who were all attacking us, did not fall
before us in battle. This interpretation gives to the lines
parallelism. Modern commentators,! however, have generally
given to the line c. another sense : inhabitants of the worlds
" an artificial poetical expression " (Du.), meaning " young,
new-born * mortals ' " (Del.), do not fall^ viz. from the womb,
i.e. are not born. On either interpretation the phraseology is
• e.g. Ki., Ges., Del.
tCoccejus, Ges., Del., Di., Cheyne, Du., Marti.
44^ COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
unusual. There is no direct evidence that 7D3 in the Kal
meant to be born ; yet it is not improbable that it did ; for the
Hiph. probably means to give birth to in v.^^, the noun ht^l
means an untimely birth^ and the Arabic kft«j, to fall^ also
means to be born ; see illustrations of the last and of the Greek
TTiTTTO), KaTaTTLTrru} (Wis 7^) in Ges. — 19. (S'g text is shorter by
one, and possibly by two words (see phil. n.) than J^ : and one
of the lines a.-d. may be an addition (see note on the rhythm),
but the essential idea is expressed more than once. The Jews
who have died will not share the common lot of man (v.^^), but
they will rise from their graves, not as spirits of the dead, but
bodily, and to resume with gladness life upon the earth, in the
new vast territory of the Jews (v.^^). This remarkable expres-
sion of what must have been already a well-defined and clear
belief in a bodily resurrection of Jews who had died before the
New Age began (cp. Dn 12^), forms an abrupt but effective
close to the poem ; abrupt, for v.^^ would naturally have had
as its sequence a repetition of the opening thought: thou,
Yahweh, will secure our safety : what we could not achieve,
Thou wilt; effective, for it uses the belief in resurrection with
all its emotional richness at once as an answer to the question
how shall the nation be increased (v.^*^), and as a climax to the
whole poem. — TAy dead] Yahweh is still addressed: Yahweh"s
dead are those who died loyal to Him, or even were slain for
His sake (cp. Ps 4723(24)) — « mortui tui, qui interfecti sunt propter
te" (Jer.). — S/iatt live] not may they live (Di.), even if the impera-
tives of ?^ in line d. are correct ; but even if i^* ^ were taken
optatively, the remainder of the verse shows that we have not
to deal with a hope in resurrection that is merely breaking
through, as in Job, but with a belief well established in the
circle to which the writer belonged, though not necessarily, nor
probably, throughout the entire nation (ct. Eccles. and later
the Sadducees), which included wicked unbelievers in this, as
in other things, that the power of Yahweh could achieve. —
Their corpses] ^ my corpses, i.e. the dead bodies of the writer's
fellow-countrymen; but the expression would be unnatural.
The writer emphasises the belief that the actual body that died
will be revivified, that it is no mere ghost that is to arise ; and
the same idea is implicit in the next line, they that dwell in the
XXVI. 19
447
dust (cp. Job 2i2«, Ps 2 2^®), now sleeping there the sleep of
death (cp. Dn 122), which is not to be for them eternal (Jer 51^^,
Job 14^^), will awake and ring out their joy. — Shall awake and
give a ringing cry\ cp. ffir : J^ Awake^ and give , . . ye that dwell,
etc., which makes the clause an address to the dead, interpolated
between clauses addressed to Yahweh. — For the dew of , . , is
thy dew] God's dew, or more strictly night-mist (iS^), falling on
the graves of His dead, and, descending to the bodies that rest
there, will cause them to live again ; in the case of God's dead
there is not the difference that Job bewailed between the vege-
table world, which, when apparently dead, is revived by water,
and man (Job 14^"^^), who, once dead, cannot revive. For the
importance of the dew or night-mist for the life of vegetation
in Palestine, see 18* n. Ges. quotes parallels to the thought
of the moistening of the dead body with rain : e.g. " visit Ma'an
and say to his grave. May the morning clouds water thee with
rain upon rain." The definition of the dew that is to restore
life to the dead Jews is unfortunately obscure ; f^ and dSc differ —
5^ miK, ffi naiK or onsiN (see phil. n.). If (& was correct we
should render literally for thy dew is the dew of {their) new flesh ;
as God revives the vegetable world by dew, so He will cause new
flesh to sprout (588) and cover the skeletons (cp. Ezk 37^) of the
Jews now lying in the grave, thus preparing them for re-birth
(cp. Ps 139^^"^^). The meaning of J^ is obscure: n"iK in
2 K 4^*1 is a term for herbs^ hence the rendering of EV here,
" the dew of herbs," which should mean that the dew that is to
fall on the dead will be as reviving in their case as the dew that
falls on herbs (Ki.) — very improbable. Most modern commen-
tators see in miK an intensive pi. of miK (Ps 139^2, Est 8^^) —
and in the dew of light "the dew of the highest heavenly region,
where is the light with which Yahweh wraps Himself" (Ps 1042),
as Marti explains, or, light and life being "interchangeable
ideas" (Ps 5614(13)^ Job 3^0 3380), as Di. puts it, the dew that
restores to the life of light. — The earth shall give birth to {the\
shades'] the rendering is not certain : on TBn, to give birth to,
see V.18 n. ; ffi's text of ^^'^ leads up to the idea of birth. Shades
are in v.^* dead men in general, here dead Jews. Other
renderings labour under the disadvantage of giving the line a
poorer connection, and shades an entirely different sense from
that in v.^* : thus and the land of the Rephaim^ Le. giants {e.g.
448 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
Dt 2^^), regarded as impious (C5), dost thou bring down (in
ruin).
12. nsjBT] nstf with the meaning to appoint (®r, 56s) occurs here only in
OT ; in 2 K 4^, Ezk 24', Ps 22^^ ^ntitff has other meanings : see BDB. — 13.
iprcf T3t: i^naV yh^} D'nx I3i'?j;3] (i) everywhere else ^h'\^ is used with a
negative ; {2) npni^ cannot be satisfactorily explained : Di. treats 13 as the
object (cp. 48S Ps 20^) prefixed to tdu, idb' being in apposition to it ; Ges.,
al. make 13 mean by means of thee ^ of thy help. In the text of <&. both these
doubtful points disappear : ffi reads KTrjaai ijfms' iKvbs aov dWov ovk otdafiev,
rb 6vo/xA aov dvofid^^ofxev, which represents not ^ (cp. Lieb.), but
: iDB' T313 I yir'?3 inVn | "iin Mhi^n
Be our owner, O Lord ;
We acknowledge none beside thee,
We make mention of thy name.
We might adopt this, but that it gives us no antecedent for the 3rd pi. pro-
noun of v.^^ (DTDrni). This we could obtain, though in a rather bare way,
by reading D'jix 13^:;? : Lords (i.e. other lords) have owned us, {but) none
beside thee do we acknowledge. For n^v = none beside, cp. i K 12^, 2 K 24^^
— 15. P« 'i^P ^^ npm m333 "M^ nso-' mn> 'uV nSD'] ffir irpSades avrois /ca/id,
KOpie, irpdades KUKd, toU ivdS^on t^s yijs. To what extent C&'s text differed
from J§ is not clear ; it does not seem to have been in any respect superior.
On ffi and various unconvincing emendations that have been proposed, see
Lieb. f^ probably preserves the sense, though if we may assume that the
rhythm was regular throughout the poem, 'U*? nSD' m.T is an amplification
of the original text. — 16. inps] (fSc ifivTfia-dTjv (HP 14 ifipi^adrjfiev) <rov = 7\:r\D]
or li"!?}; Cheyne, T[j]ip3; Lieb. ^l^^i^s. ips occurs here only of man's
seeking God. — id*? "pDiD K'n^ ]^P^] for id*? read 13*?: so (& vfxivy and cp. ist
plural in vv.^^* "*•. vn^ ppj« is also corrupt ; not only is the meaning
commonly extracted from J^ most questionable (see above), but the form of
the 3rd perfect pi. with \ is anomalous and open to the gravest suspicion even
in the latest OT literature : see Dr. § 6, Obs. n. , and G-K. 44/. The anomalous
form is avoided, but a sense no more probable is obtained, if we point jip^
c'o!?, and assume that ]^p)i is a SLv. "Key. having the same meaning as np^)i (8^-)
or pJfiD (8^), and render constraint such as is enforced by a charm was thy
chastisement (Koppe, Di.). 6r ^v d\i\}/ei fUKpq. scarcely = |^, but it is
ambiguous, perhaps yrh \Kip} Cheyne, modifying a suggestion of Houb.,
proposes yrhn upy:* (cp. 65^^) ; Lieb. (who discusses other less probable
suggestions) ^n'? npis. Lieb.'s emendation of ^^•*' keeps nearest to the evi-
dence of 1^ and ffir combined : Cheyne gives what appears to be a sense rather
more suitable to the context. — 17. ^'nn] absent from <&'. it is rhythmically
superfluous, and is probably an addition made out of regard for laVn below.
— 18. nn in"?' id3] id3 ( = nB'»t3, Gn k)^'^) is absent from (&. — i'?S'-Vai] <& &\\k
ireffovvrat irdures : see Lieb. — 19. nsy 'JSB' Uim i)i'pn ]V2^p'' 'n^jj i^np vn'] <&^
dvaarijaovTaL (■^+701/3) ol veKpol koI iyepdrjaovrai oi iv rots fxvT]fielois
Kal evcppapdrjaovTai oi iv ry yy ; perhaps this is = (or iif'p'i) pDip' n^DJl D'nD vn'
nay ''lyo um ; but ffi clearly renders one word less than at present
XXVI. 12-19, XXVI. 20- XXVII. I 449
stands in fl^. Cheyne has argued that the original text of ffi rendered two
words less, arguing that the overlined words are doublets, each rendering
"isy '33B' ; but this is far from certain, for ol iv toZj fxvrjfielon is an admirable
rendering for n'?D3 in a passage where its common equivalent vexpol has already
been used. Nor in view of 38' is it certain that i.va.ari\<iovr<3Li = JiDip' (as in
v.^*) rather than vn\— I'na] (E Q'no : |^ is to be preferred. — 'nSaa] the un-
suitable ' is derived by dittography from the following poip' ; but nVaa (? (&)
is scarcely the original reading, rather onVai (5). nVaa is frequently used
collectively as here.— upi ^'i'^ril read o?1i «'p: (cp. (Sr).— V'sn] ffi irfactTat, i.e.
•^sn, which would be ambiguous, but might be rendered, But the land of
Rephaim will fall^ i.e. come to ruin : this certainly explains the order of
the words ; but against it, see above. For the order, subject, object, predi-
cate, see Dr. 208 (3).
20-XXVII. I. The Jews are to keep safe, while
Yahweh is abroad in the world exacting from it penalty
for its crimes. — Continuation from 258 : translation on p. 407.
Before the final consummation, when Yahweh is to ascend His
throne in Sion (24^3), give His coronation feast to all peoples
(25^^-), and remove for ever the reproach of His people, the Jews
(258), there will be a moment during which His anger will be
abroad, exacting from the inhabitants of the world penalty (cp.
2417-20) for their deeds of blood which the earth will then reveal
(cp. 24^) ; during this moment of wrath, let the Jews keep close
at home, in their chambers with closed doors (cp. Ex 1222'-, also
Job 14^^). At the same time, Yahweh will punish all that is
opposed to Him in heaven : as of old He pierced the dragon,
the personification or leader of Chaos, before creating the
present world, so now is He about to slay these monsters who
have misled His creatures, as the immediate prelude to a new
heaven and new earth over which He will exercise sovereignty
(2423). In the same way in Babylonia the killing of a monster
precedes Marduk's accession to sovereign power {KAT^ 499)- —
20. Hide] not in terror, as in 2^®, for Yahweh now intends to do
His people no hurt, but as a precaution, lest the wrath of God,
as it roams abroad, should unintentionally do hurt to the Jews
as well as to others. — Wrath] can scarcely be here the last
expiring traces of Yah weh's anger against His people (lo^^n.),
which are to vanish completely when Yahweh proceeds (v.^i)
to punish the world (Di.); v.^i is rather a reason why an ex-
plosion of wrath is about to take place, from which the Jews
must keep out of the way. — 21. From his place] heaven ; Mic i*.
VOL. I. — 29
4SO COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
— Inhabitants of the earthy cp. 24^" : sing, collective in f^. —
2IC. d. When Yahweh comes to punish, the earth will lay bare
the blood of the slain which it has drank in, and the uncovered
blood will cry aloud to Yahweh to avenge it: cp. Gn 4^^^-,
Job 16^^, Ezk 24"^-. Line d. is simply parallel to line c : it does
not introduce the new thought that the martyrs themselves, as
well as their blood, will arise to testify (Del., al.). — XXVII. I.
Does this v. refer to war in heaven or war on earth ? Do the
two Leviathans and the dragon belong solely to the host of
heaven ? or do they symbolise three earthly kingdoms, or a
single earthly kingdom, or indefinitely all earthly powers opposed
to Yahweh and to Israel? If the reference is to earthly
kingdoms, what were these kingdoms? On all these points
interpreters have differed, and continue to differ. The close
correspondence of 20^^'^^ and 26^^-2 7^ strongly favours the view
that this v. refers to that "war in heaven" (Rev 12'^) which
must precede the birth of the New World as it preceded the
birth of the present (cp. Gunkel, Schopfung u. Chaos, 367-371 ;
XAT^ ^oj {.); 262<^-2 7^ carries us back to the time before the
removal of the reproach of the Jews (25^) and Yahweh's glorious
reign in Jerusalem (2623c. d)^ and is therefore parallel in time
to 2421-23^; as 26^1 corresponds to Yahweh's visitation on "the
kings of the earth" (2421c), 27^ might well correspond to the
punishment of "the host of the height in the height." The
host above and the kings are doubtless related (see n. on 2421),
but we need not seek for any specific identification of the three
heavenly beings with three earthly kingdoms. Those who do
seek such identification, whether including or excluding any
heavenly reference, differ much : e.g. I^i., Rashi think of Assyria,
Egypt, Tyre ; Del. sees in the dragon which is in the sea, Egypt
(cp. 57^, Ps 7413, Ezk 298 3 2 2), in the fleeing serpent, Assyria
situated along the rushing, rapid Tigris, and in the twisted
serpent, Babylon situated along the Euphrates, " which has many
turns and labyrinth-like windings " ; Cheyne and Box equate the
dragon with Egypt, and the two Leviathans with Babylon and
Persia; Du. agrees as to the dragon, but equates the fleeing
serpent with the Parthians on account of their well-known
manner of fighting, and the other serpent with Syria. Ges., a
representative of the view that all three descriptions signify the
same monster, identifies this monster with Babylon. It will
XXVI. 21, XXVII. I 451
be seen that there is no agreement except with regard to Egypt ;
and it should be observed that in some of the passages quoted
above more than one of these mythological epithets is conferred
on Egypt : e.g. in Ps 74^^ Egypt is both the dragon and Levi-
athan. The point, then, of the whole v. is just this : Yahweh
will make an end of all that is opposed to Him in heaven, even
as He executes punishment on all who have offended Him on
earth (2621); and in order to make this point the writer avails
himself of current mythological ideas and terms. Fundament-
ally, according to this mythological theory, the opposition was
between the gods of order and the power of disorder — the
Chaos-monster: there is, therefore, a certain element of truth
in the view that the three designations — the two Leviathans
and the dragon are a single being; but the Hebrew writer
clearly intends three distinct objects and, possibly, as Dr. Burney
has recently suggested,* the three conspicuous constellations
of serpentine form. It is conceivable, as Zimmem remarks
{KAT^ 501 n. 2), that several constellations were at one and
the same time regarded as representatives (Entsprechungen)
of the Chaos-monster. — His sword] the conception of the mighty
sword of God "is, no doubt, ancient (cp. Gn 3^*), but it is
specially prominent in late eschatological descriptions ; cp. 34*
6617, Zee 137, En go^^- 3* 9112, Rev i^s 2I2 etc." (Cheyne, Infrod.
p. 151). It is suggested that three epithets are applied to the
sword to gain symmetry (Du.) with the three monsters on whom
it is to be used. The first epithet, HK^p {(& HB^np, holy), may
mean fierce, relentless (cp. 1 9*, Jg 4^*), or, perhaps, well-tempered,
doing much work without becoming blunted, a meaning which
would have its nearest analogy in the application of the adj. to
a stiffened neck. — Leviathan'] a mythic serpent ; cp. Job 3®,
Ps 7414 10426, En 6o7-9- 24f., 4 Es 6*»-«2, and see EBi. 520 ff. The
ideas doubtless go back to Babylonian mythology in which the
conflict of Marduk with mythical serpentine monsters plays a
conspicuous part (cp. Zimmem, in KAT^^^. 498 f., 500-504), but
the term Leviathan has not yet been found in Babylonian : its
origin is ohscnxe, perhaps it means the wreathed or twisted (vni?).
The duplication of Leviathan here and in the next line is
curious j but it is scarcely due to the fact that the writer needed
* JThSy 1910, pp. 443 f. ; see also Smend's earlier identification with the
same constellations, ZATWw. 213.
452 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
three names for three different world-powers, and therefore used
Leviathan twice, differentiating by means of different epithets
(Gunkel, p. 47); if he merely needed another name, Rahab
was at his disposal (cp. 51 9, Job 2612): others think that the
two Leviathans denote two closely connected kingdoms, such
as two in the Euphrates-Tigris valley. The first Leviathan
is described as the fleeing serpent^ which in Job 26^^ is intimately
associated with the sky. Burney would identify this Leviathan
with the constellation Serpens with which Ophiuchus, " the serpent-
grasper," is closely associated. The conception of Yahweh smit-
ing with a sword a serpent that flees from Him, has its analogy
and probably its origin in a Babylonian myth which is pictorially
represented, for example, on a Babylonian seal of a serpent
pursued and about to be smitten, presumably Tiamat pursued
by Marduk ; see illustration in Cheyne, SBOT, p. 206, and cp.
KAT^ 503. The second Leviathan is the crooked or twisted
(pn7py) serpent : this is identified by Smend and Burney with
the constellation Draco^ "which winds its long-drawn length
between Ursa major and Ursa minor" Gunkel, on the other
hand, traces the epithet to the association of Leviathan the
primeval monster with the sea, which, according to Babylonian
and also Greek conceptions, flowed twisting round all lands. —
The Dragon] cp. 518, Job 712, Ps 74I3; also Ps 1487 (pL).
The dragon is described in J^ as that which is in the sea (absent
from ^), and the whole according to Di. means the crocodile
which is in the sea, i.e. the Nile (19^ n.), a symbol of Egypt.
But if, as is more probable, we have here to do with constella-
tions, the sea is the celestial ocean, and the constellation is
Hydra^ which lies south of the Ecliptic in that part of the
Heavens which ranked with the Babylonians as the ocean
(Burney, p. 445).
20. 1'0?l] K^tib ; 1i^^^, K®r6. The latter assumes an otherwise unknown
form rh^ : if sing. {(&. t^v dipav aov), as in 2 S 13", 2 K 4^^, point rather
?;n^rj. — -^nyn (& omit; but cp. Jg s^. — '3n] not fem. (G-K. 75^^), a view
for which Del. offers a Rabbinical explanation ; but the form is either an
Aramaic 2nd masc. sing. (Olsh. 235^; Kon. i. 623), or point '5n=n3n. —
2X. iDipDD] ^ freely d-rrb tov ayiov. — vhl! pN.TDE" py nps*?] <& iirdyei. t^v
opy^v iirl Toiis ivoiKouvrai iTri r^s yijs : it is doubtful how far dSc differed from
|fc] ; see Lieb. With the cstr. of |^, cp. Am s^-i^— Tiy] ffir omits: J§ is
correct.
XXVI. 20, XXVII. 2-6
453
XXVII. 2-6. — YahweKs delightful vineyard.
The song consists of short lines of two or three accents for the most part
grouped in distichs. A remarkable feature of it is the sustained rhyme in
n-^- in vv.^"*. The text and, consequently, in detail the structure, are very
uncertain.
A delightful vineyard —
Sing ye to it (?).
• I, Yahweh, am guarding it,
Constantly I water it;
Lest its leaves be missing,
Day and night I guard it.
• Wrath (?) have I none (?) ;
0 that I had thorns, briars (?) ;
In battle would I step (?) on them,
1 would burn them altogether
• Or else let him lay hold on my refuge,
Let him make peace with me.
Peace let him make with me.
• . . . Jacob shall take root,
Israel shall blossom and bud>
And they shall fill the face of the world with fruit.
In these verses, as in most of this chapter, either the text
is corrupt and unintelligible, or the thought of the writer is
expressed obscurely and in very remarkable ways. But
apparently we have here a kind of contrast to the song of the
vineyard in 5^"^ : there, Yahweh exercises all possible care, gets
no return from it, and in anger hands over the vineyard to be
wasted and trampled down : here, Yahweh constantly tends His
vineyard, and His hostility is reserved for thorns and briars,
which seem to symbolise Israel's enemies ; these. He will wage war
on, and burn with fire, unless they come to terms with Him. In
any case the vine of Israel will grow marvellously and fill the
world. Such is as probable a view as any of the meaning of J^ ;
but f^ is curiously expressed, and ffi, from which, however, it would
be even harder to extract any intelligible meaning than from J^,
454 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
may have had a very different text. — For another view of the
interpretation, see on v.^- ^ ; for some of the variations of ffir, see
the phil. nn. below, and see, further, Lieb. — 2. In that day . . .]
unless the words are corrupt, something has dropped out,
probably either shall be said (cp. 25^), or shall be sung (26^).
Di. suggests, indeed, that v.^ as a whole constitutes an artificial
variant on the introductory formulae in 25® 26^, and that we
should render. On that day a delightful vineyard — sing of it,
i.e. the following song of the delightful vineyard will be sung.
Of this Du. reasonably remarks, " Even the most helpless writer
would not stammer thus." — A delightful vineyard] IDH D"I3 (ffi
and some Heb. MSS) is a vineyard which is an object of desire
(2^^ phil. n.), or delight; cp. Am 5^1, and "delightful fields,"
32^2; cp. also the use of the vb. in Ps 68i7(i6), Ca 2\ f^^lJ
read lon 013, a vineyard of wine \ "ion, wine, occurs elsewhere
only in Dt 32^*; but N"ion,^ri- are regular terms for wine. The
following words, np'l^y, may be rendered, sing ye to it (cp. Nu
21^'^), or sing ye of it (cp. 5^); neither seems very probable, and
the text may be suspected. — /, Yahweh, am guarding it] cp. 26^,
or am its watchman, cp. Job 27^^, Pr 27^^; also Is i^ — Con-
stantly] WVyhi cp. Job 7^^ Ezk 26^^ — 3c. This line may be
rendered, lest its leaves, shrivelling and dropping from lack of water
(ct. Jer 17^), be missing, or lest visitation be made upon it (cp.
Nu 1 629) ; by giving to 7V "ipa a shade of meaning not supported
by usage, we could obtain something more natural than either,
lest any hurt it (RV). Very probably the text is corrupt. —
4. Wrath] This is merely one way of interpreting J^; equally
possible renderings are wall (n»n ; e.g. 26^), or sun or heat
(ntsn, 2423, Ps iq'}. None of them gives a satisfactory sense.
Lowth adopted wall (€r&), and, treating w.^"^ as a dialogue
between Yahweh (vv.^* ^*'* ^ '^ ^) and the ungrateful vine-
yard (w."^*- ^' ^^' *'), saw in v.^ ^ a complaint of the vineyard,
/ have no wall for my defence : O that I had a fence of thorns
and briars. Most modern interpreters agree in rendering wrath,
but differ as to the object of the wrath : if the meaning is,* I am
not angry with my vineyard (ct. 5^^-, Ezk i7^9^-), it seems very
superfluous after v.^ On the other hand, Di.(cp. Ew., Hitz.)has
• Ges., Del., Che., Du., Marti, Skinner.
XXVII. 2-6
455
to assume an antithesis which is in no way indicated when he
interprets : Now that judgment has been executed, I have no
wrath against any one, but (v.*^-^), if occasion arise, I would take
the field again. — O that I had] an optative phrase (G-K.
151^, b)f lit. who will give me. — Thorns^ briars] 5*. The
asyndeton is improbable: supply and] or omit briars as an
accretion. But corruption of the text may go deeper: if not,
the thorns and briars on which battle is to be waged (cp. 7 2*,
2 S 23^^-) by Yahweh must symbolise His enemies, i.e. the
enemies of Israel. — Step] the vb. VtTD occurs here only in OT ;
but the nouns ptJ'B, step (i S 208), and nVB'QO ( = nini5', 2 S 10*),
buttocks (i Ch 19*), are found. In NH and Aram, the vb.
means to step, and in Syriac with ^^ (ct. 3 here), to trample on.
— 5. Let him, i.e. one of the offenders symbolically called " thorns
and briars " in v.*, if he does not wish to share the fiery fate of
his fellows, lay hold of (cp. i K i^o 2^8) my refuge (30^), i.e. let
him seek my protection. — 6. As in the other song of Yahweh's
vineyard, the vineyard is at the end of the poem openly identified
with Yahweh's people, Israel, Jacob, who are, with a slight
modification of the figure, now depicted as a gigantic vine, deep-
rooted, spreading over even vaster tracts than the vines of 16®,
Ps 80^^'- (cp. also 3721, Hos i4^^-)» filling the whole world with
its produce, i.e. the Jews will cover the earth or be a blessing in
its midst (19^*). — Shall blossom and bud] the reverse order,
Ps 928; on these and other terms of growth, see Numbers, p.
216 f.
WiTin Di»3] it is possible that d(i)'3 is a dittograph of D'3, v.\ and that Kinn
was subsequently added : if not, add tdki or '\v\ — non Dia] (& &ixve\il)v koKSs.
i'iri60/xr]fxa = ui3 + a double rendering of ton. C may also have read non:
it paraphrases Kno KynK3 d'« di33 K'm '?mB'n nnB'ja. — nS uy] ffi ^^dpxeiv
Kar* avTTjs {-ov) = n^ mjy. ^, which implies that ms is fem. here though it
is elsewhere masc, is uncertain ; but (& gives no clear light. Ruben {Critical
Remarks, p. 16) proposes "h 'n'jp.— 3. mn'] (K TrtJXty.— D'yin*?] ffi iiari^v, prob-
ably for DpnV. — mw] (S read the same consonants, but treated the form as
fem. part. Niph. of nix. Lieb. would read nj^.— n''?y npD' js] C oXt^erat
7<ip, % ^ ,mn\v jCLQ^Io, % pnao ynonK^ p-u pn'3in ''?i!?«. ffi omits
r!''?y, and it is doubtful whether either ffi or S read jfl ; but ffi supports J^ in
reading the vb. in the 3rd person against the ist person of .S, which has been
adopted by Lowth, Houb., al. ^'hv, if it means leaves, is probably an incorrect
pleneioxm of nj'y : for leafage is rhv, collect, sing. (e.g. i^) : the pi. (Neh 8"t) «
used of plucked leaves.— For npp:, be missing, cp. e.g. a K lo^*, Jer 23*; Oo.
4S6 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
proposes pis\ be torn off. MT nps' is best explained as a case of the indef.
subj. f^ is doubtful, but none of the emendations proposed are convincing :
from Lieb. these examples may be quoted of substitutes for the ^p^' }S of ?^ :
np£3K (5>, Lowth), npD: 'j^ (Bredenkamp), npcN [3 (Gratz), Via; \^ (Ruben),
npty '3N or, in place of the whole clause in ][§, nnN ips un (Lieb.). If
the }3 of 1^ be correct, the sentence may depend on what precedes (Du.,
Cheyne), or on what follows. — 4, 5. "h j'N nnn]. Ruben proposes 7h jrx rvyn. —
n'8' TDK'] fflr (pvXdaaeiv KaXdfiTjv iv d,yp(^ shows ( I ) that TDt? is a />kne form of
an original lorff, which may or may not have meant thorns ; (2) that n'ty was
asyndeton as early as ®r : the emendation n'B'i td» is, therefore, rather risky
where much would still remain that is suspicious. — nDn'?D3] Du. proposes
nij^,?3 D'c I T'Dt? 'jjn^ 'D, which would account for the asyndeton (see last n.)
and get rid of Yahweh's battle against thorns : Lieb. achieves the last point
by reading nonn : both very uncertain, nj— . . . n|] fem suff. referring to
n't? rotf used collectively : G.-K. 135/ ; Kon. 348^, h. — 5. '*? ne'y* DiSt?]
possibly an addition (cp. 6r), but the repetition may have been intentional.
— 6. D'Nnn] scarcely a breviloquence for D'N^n D'cn, Ec 2^^ : nor is it very
probable that Ninn nV3 (Lieb.) would get corrupted into D'K3n. ffl^ ol
ipx{>lJi'evoL, T^Kva probably read vrm instead of VW" ; possibly D'N3n conceals
a vb. governing vyitf, and the whole was a phrase meaning struck deep root :
Lowth's conjecture i^ntt'D D'Npn, or Du.'s modification of it rne'D K3n, Ma/
which comes from the root of Jacob shall blossom^ would give poor parallelism
and bad balance with v.***. — S5'i;f':] the punctuation expresses a hope of the
punctuators: point »"5f:. — inVoi] trans.: cp. 14*; but perhaps nV^^ should
be read : note the singulars in lines a. b.
XXVII. 7-1 1. — The limited punishment^ and the conditions
of the complete expiation^ of Israel.
There is a considerable amount of parallelism and of balanced rhythm
(3:3 or 4 : 4) in these verses ; but the text (see v.*) is not always certain,
and it is very doubtful whether the verses were originally continuous. The
balance in v.^", though scarcely the sense, would be improved by taking lanOD
with v.^*'*' ; v."^"* ^ balances badly, and the balance of v.^'*- *• would be improved
by omitting niKa,
^ As his smiter is smitten did he smite him ?
Or as his slayers are slain was he slain?
* ... by dismissing her dost thou contend with her;
He hath removed her by his fierce wind in the day of
the sirocco.
• Therefore on this condition shall the iniquity of Jacob be
expiated —
And this shall be all the fruit (?) of removing his sin —
That he make all altar-stones like pounded chalk-stones,
That asherim and fyammdnim stand erect no more.
XXVII. 4-II 457
^* For the fortified city is desolate,
An abode deserted and forsaken like the wilderness,
There the calf feeds,
And there lies down and consumes the branches thereof ;
*i When the boughs thereof are dry, they are broken off;
Women come, make a fire of them ;
For it is not a people of understanding,
Wherefore its Maker shall show it no mercy,
And its Framer shall show it no favour.
The connection of these verses with what precedes and with
what follows is loose, and they probably formed no original part
either of the apocalypse, or still less of the song (vv. 2-6). It
is not certain even that they are all of a piece: the internal
connection is in places very far from clear : see on vv.®* *• ^^f..
7. The meaning probably is : Has Yahweh made Israel suffer
as severely as those who had inflicted suffering on Israel ? No,
for Israel at least survives for a glorious future (v.^), his smiters
(io20) are annihilated. Cp. Jer lo^^^-. — 8. The fem. suffixes,
which distinguish this v. from v.'^, where both suffixes and parti-
ciples are masc, and nni'K'3 (cp. nf'K'D, v.^^) form some point of
connection between this v. and v.^®. It may perhaps be a gloss
on that V. (Du., Che., Marti) that has crept into the text. Of
attempts to connect the v. with the context, that of Di. is no
more unsuccessful than others ; according to him, the meaning
is : Israel has been punished by expulsion and exile only, and has
therefore suffered less than her enemies (v.'^) ; following J^, from
which ffir differs, he renders the first line, By expulsion^ by dis-
missing her (as a divorcee), dost thou contend with her (49^^,
Job lo^) ; and he explains the use of the impf. tense — in-
adequately—as due to the fact that the time of Yahweh's dis-
favour is not yet quite over (2620). Smend explains: "finally,
Israel's enemies must suffer far more severely than Israel itself.
The storm wind will carry them off, and they will perish for ever."
This does more justice to the impf. of v.**, but fails to explain
the 3rd fem. sing, suffixes. The first word of the v. is particu-
larly uncertain : since ST, many have connected nKDKD3 with
riKD, the third of an ephah^ which is supposed to bear also
the general sense measure : nXD«D3 is then supposed to be a
contraction for riKD nKD3, and to mean either (i) measure
458 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
for measure \ so ST, "with what measure thou metedst shall it be
meted to thee who didst dismiss and oppress them " ; or (2) with
exact measure-, cp. RV. All this is most improbable. Others,
including apparently ffir (/Aaxo/Aevos), see in the form a Pilpel infin.
preceded by 3, and followed by the fem. ending, or as in T\rh^1
by the fem. suffix ; then it is guessed from the context that KDND
meant to expel-, the etymological support for such a meaning
is precarious in the extreme : the Arabic I-jLj means to make the
noise made by camel or donkey-drivers to hurry up their beasts ;
hence it is inferred the word may have come to mean more
generally to expel ! — 8b. Seems to describe a very severe fate :
cp. Hos 13^^, Jer 18^^, Job 2721. That a sirocco as blowing
from the east is symbolical of the Eastern peoples, Assyrians
and Babylonians (Di.), is not very probable. — The sirocco'] the
east wind of Palestine, blowing from the wilderness, is hot and
suffocating, and destructive of vegetation (Gn 41*, Hos 13^^);
it may also be very violent (Ezk 272^, Ps 48*), and carry all
before it (Jer iS^^, Job 2 721). It has been frequently described
by modern travellers : see, e.g.^ G. A. Smith, Hist. Geog. 67-69,
and cp. Dr. on Am 4^.
9, Israel's iniquity will be wiped out, and his sin with all its
grievous consequences removed, by His purging His land from all
illegitimate worship and objects of worship : this seems to be the
meaning of the v. — Therefore] can only be laboriously explained :
because Yahweh is more favourable to Israel than to his smiters,
and does not annihilate him, therefore on this condition^ i.e. the
condition defined below (v.^*'- **), he can be rid of iniquity and its
consequences ; riND is resumed by 1D")6J'3, exactly as by (yiDna in
Gn 34^^: cp., too, I S 1 1 2. — The iniquity of Jacob shall be ex-
piated] ct. 22^*. — The parallel line instead of running, and on this
condition his sin shall depart (cp. (P\ reads in f^ thus : and
this is all the fruit of making his sin depart. Cheyne once (/V.)
explained the two lines as meaning that Israelis repentance was at
once the cause and effect of its forgiveness; "Justice and mercy
are combined in the removal of sin and guilt according to the
Old Test, as well as the New." Such excellent theology fortun-
ately does not rest alone on so strange an expression of it as is
given, if given at all, here ; CEr reads " and this shall be his blessing
when I remove his sin." — Altar-stones] altars^ 'asherim and ^am-
XXVII. 8-1 1, 7, 8 459
mdnim (cp. 1 7' n.) are seductions from the sole worship of Yahweh,
and all such will be absent from an ideal community : the altars
are the altars other than the legitimate altar at Jerusalem, such
as the altars that survived from, or were restored after, Josiah's
reformation ; or, if the prophecy were so late, altars on which the
Hellenizing and apostate Jews offered (cp. i Mac 2^^),
10 f. Description of a once strong and fortified city that is
now desolate, a spot where cattle feed (cp. e.g. 5^^) and women
come in search of firewood — a vivid trait peculiar to this
passage; the reason of this fate was that the inhabitants were
without understanding and, therefore, obtained neither favour
nor mercy from its maker. What city is intended is altogether
uncertain ; some think it is the capital of the world-empire
oppressing the Jews;* others, that it is Jerusalem;! others, J
Samaria, the home of the people without understanding
(Sir 50^*). For is a difficulty in any case. — 10. A fortified
city\ cp. 252 26^ — Is desolate'] alone, dwelling apart; of
Jerusalem, La i\ — An abode (34^^) deserted] lit. expelled, Le.
an abode from which the inhabitants have been expelled:
cp. an expelled nest, 16^. — And consumes the branches thereof]
i.e, the branches of the bushes and trees that had overgrown
the long-deserted spot, cp. 34^^; but the expression of the
idea is curious and the text doubtful. Du. by emendation
(see phil. n.) substitutes for "^^ as it reads in f^. And thorns
and briars grow branches: cp. 32^^ 23I2. — iia. b. The dried
and broken-off branches ("i"'Vp, Ps 80^2^ Job 14® 18" 29i*>t) serve
women for firewood. — For it is not a people of understanding] this
might apply to Israel (cp. i^), or Samaria (Sir 502^); but since
heathen nations can be described as doomed to Sheol because
forgetful of God (Ps 9^7 0^)), any such nation might well be
described as failing to obtain mercy from God because without
understanding, i.e. knowledge of God's ways (cp. 44^^ Ps 74^^- 22).
It is, indeed, a characteristic of late Jewish thought that the
nations must get instructed in Yahweh's ways (2^-% that if they
fail to do so or to act upon their knowledge, they will perish
(6o^2j^ — jf^ Maker . . . its Framer] the pronouns refer to
Israel, 43^ 442 ; but they might certainly refer, if the con-
text required it, to other nations: for Yahweh has made all
nations (Ps 869).
♦ Di. t I^el., Du., Box, Skinner. X Marti.
460 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
7. nn vjnn . . . man inDO] probably this was originally either irvio
vyp ... or ij-in . . . inao {&), and either rtsn and iin or 'la'iq . . . man. The
pass, vjnq, MT, is in any case most improbable. — 8. naann nnhtP2 nKONoa]
C& fiax^fievos Kal 6v€iSi^ojv i^airoffreXeT airoijs ; Lieb. argues that this rendered
mn^v nam nNDNon, or '"^b" '02 nana, fflr ought not to be quoted as reading
nann', and it is, of course, not certain that it read precisely nxDNDn. For nNDNoa,
Cond. proposes .nNONtsa (cp. 14^). See, further, the full discussion in Kon. i.
655-658 ; and for sundry proposed emendations, Lieb. — njn] MT probably
intends the form to be 3rd pf. of mr^, to muse, meditate : cp. QT. This, of
course, is impossible. fJjn, 3rd pf. of nan, to separate, remove (cp. Pr 25**-t),
with the 3rd fern, suffix as in line a., may have been intended. To explain
the form by reference to La i^ (Cheyne), or to the doubtful 2 S 20^' (Du.),
as Hiph. of r\y with the suffix, ajn, is less satisfactory. — 9. hntd p^] (J5 5t4
Tovro, reading perhaps only one of the two words. — nn . . . riNis] a curious
change of masc. and fem. — ns]yir«?V, suggests result; J. D. Mich, (cited by
Lieb.) proposed '19, the bullocks, i.e. offerings, required ybr removing his
sin ; though this is quite improbable, it shows a sense of the difficulty of J^
which modem attempts at explanation have failed to surmount satisfactorily
(see above). — iDip' . . . iDirn] cstr. as 5' n. With op, to stand erect, cp. the
use of the Hiphil = to erect, e.g. in Jos 4*. — nj] Dn 5' {Aramaic)f ; KT3 in
Am 2^ 5D=Tt5' ^. — 10 f. On (ffi, see Lieb.'s full discussion ; but he is wrong
in representing o as absent from (E ; Ty '3 in the form nya is represented by
CbffTrep dpv/ibs in a clause at the end of v.* which is incorrectly rejected by
Lieb. as a Greek gloss. — n'syo hVdi y^r Dt^i] Du. ni£3j;D nV fpi Ton: (&
already read yir nv). — 11. niTKD] TNn, to kindle, as Mai i'®, Ps 18^, and
perhaps 50^^ — nnn^n ^'y"&'p\ if the text is correct, the 3rd fem. pi. is due to
Tsp being regarded as collective (G-K. 145c) ; cp. jna referring to ^pD, Gn
30'', and njn to Ty in Jg i^"^ (cp. Jer 4^), but below nniM is fem. sing.
— ni3'3] pi. here only ; but cp. nwun, 40", and see G-K. 124^.
12, 13. Conclusion of the Apocalypse. . . . Continua-
tion of v.i ; translation, p. 408. The Jews will be gathered
together, whether those who dwell scattered (and mingled with
the heathen (?)) within the limits of the ideal boundaries of the
Land of Promise (v.^^)^ or those who have wandered, or been
exiled, beyond those limits, eastwards or westwards ; these latter,
now too far dispersed to do so, will come and worship Yahweh
in Jerusalem. The more detailed meaning and significance is
unfortunately obscure, especially in v.^^. but the situation pre-
supposed is similar to that in 258^- <*, possibly also to that in
2620f-, or, as Marti puts it, these verses give us the positive side
of those passages and the conclusion of the Apocalypse : the
reproach of the Jews will cease (25^), those who reproached them
will be punished (2620^-), the Jews themselves will be gathered to
Jerusalem (li^'^^-) and to the glory of Yahweh's reign there (2423).
XXVII. 9-13 4^1
— Yahweh will beat out {grain) from the corn-ears of the River to
{those of) the Wady of Egypt^ or Yahweh will beat off {olive-
berries)^ or beat out {grain) from the current (cp. ffi) of the River
to the Wady of Egypt: both translations can be defended, neither
can be maintained with complete confidence. The vb. D3n
(28^'^) means either to beat out grains of corn with a stick, Jg 6*^,
Ruth 2^^, or to beat an olive tree so as to bring off the berries,
Dt 242^*; the noun vhl^ means either an ear (not grain^ the
object of I33n in Jg 6^^) of corn, e.g. 17*, Gn 41*, or else a
flow, or current^ of water, Ps 69^- ^^ and, probably, Jg 1 2*. The
use of 7hl^ is in either case unnecessarily awkward : for in the
neighbourhood of I53n it is natural to take it of ears of grain ;
but, on the other hand, attached to a term for water like river,
its most obvious meaning is current-, the river Jordan flowing
past suggested testing the fugitives by the pronunciation of
Shibboleth in particular (Jg 12^), though, of course, any word
beginning with K^ would have done equally well. Again, there
seems no particular point in saying /r^w the current of the River
instead of from the River simply ; but it is equally difficult to
see why, if the writer meant, Yahweh will beat out corn from the
River to the Wady^ he chose to say instead, Yahweh will beat out
from the corn ears of the River to the Wady ; * vbl^ must, more-
over, if this is intended, be taken as a collective, though it is so
used nowhere else. Again, Op?, gleanings takes place before t33n,
beatings of wheat (Ru 2^"^) ; but berries would be picked up after
they had been beaten ^the tree. On the whole, the awkwardness
seems less if lD3n can be taken of olive-beating. But in either
case the figure seems to be badly expressed. Ges. understands the
meaning to be that Israel's territory in its widest extent will be
as thickly and quickly populated as though men fell from trees ;
Smend (pp. 192, 207), that Yahweh will gather the entire Jewish
community, now scattered between Egypt and the Euphrates,
together, without exception, as individual olives at the gleaning are
knocked off the trees and collected. Many modern commentators
explain much as Marti, "Yahweh institutes a great threshing,
the Jews are the good corn, the heathen the straw ; the Jews are
* Unless, indeed, as Del. suggests, the writer intended a •* beautiful [?]
dil(^y" which might be roughly represented in English by, "Yahweh will
pick from the currents of the River," etc., meaning "Yahweh will pick
currants from the River to."
462 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
picked up one by one, the heathen removed." The straw in
this case might also perhaps include unworthy Israelites : cp.
Zee 5^-^. — The River] the Euphrates, 7^0 n. In 241^ olive-
beating is a sinister figure. — The Wady of Egypt] mod. Wady
el-'Arish, the ancient Rhinocolura (so ffir here) which flows into
the Mediterranean at el-'Arish, about half-way between Gaza
and Pelusium; see Numbers^ p. 454. For the River and the
Wady of Egypt^ as ideal boundaries of the promised land, see
Gn 15^^, which mentions both; Ex 23^^, Dt i^, Jos i*, which
mention the River \ and i K 8^^^ which mentions the Wady. —
13. A great trumpet] the summoning of the elect by means
of a trumpet-blast appears frequently in late eschatology : see
Mt 2431, I Co 1552, I Th 4^6. cp. also the diff'erent use of
trumpets in Zee 9^^, Rev 7. 8. — They that were lost] Dn^Nn i.e.
away from home in a strange and unfamiliar land. So is 126?
used of sheep that have been allowed to stray off their owner's
land, and so become lost, and consequently exposed to peril
of perishing : cp. Jer 50^ " Lost sheep have my people become :
their shepherds let them go astray . . . they have gone from
mountain to hill, they have forgotten their place of lying down
(l^ni : cp. Is 2f^)\ Jer 23^ "Woe to the shepherds that have
let the sheep get lost (Dn3K») and scattered. ... Ye have
scattered my sheep, and cast them out (Din^ni) ; Ezk 34**^' " The
outcast (nman) ye brought not back (home), and the lost
(ninxn) ye sought not, and they were scattered from having no
shepherd, and became food for all the beasts of the field";
yy 12-16 "As a shepherd seeketh out his flock . . ., so will I seek
out my sheep, and rescue them from all the places whither they
have been scattered; and I will bring them out from all the
peoples, and collect them from all the lands, and bring them to
their ground ; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel.
There shall they lie down in a good home-stead. ... I myself
will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down. . . . The
lost (JTi^Nn) I will seek, and the outcast (nni3n) will I bring
back (home)." Cp. also Ps 119!''^ and (of asses) i S 9^* 20^ So in
the Hturgy of Dt 26 the Israelite at home in the land of promise
(yy 1. 3j contrasts (vv.^* ^' ^® ; ^) his present position in his own
land under the constant care of Yahweh with that of the
XXVII. 12, 13 4^3
father of the nation who was 13N *ID"1K, a lost^ i.e. a homeless,
Aramaean^ passing down into Egypt, a country not his own, to
live there as 2l ger (142 n.). As the homeless children of Jacob
were once brought out of the alien land of Egypt into their own
home-land, so will the Jews, now again away from home, in the
alien lands of Egypt and Assyria, return home to Jerusalem. —
The land of Assyria] not necessarily the land of the Assyrians
of Isaiah's time, so that we must suppose the v. to have been
written before the fall of Nineveh, or that a later writer looking
back to that time means in particular the ten tribes who were
exiled in Isaiah's day to Assyria ( Di.) ; but Assyria, as in Ezr
6^6, is the same district, retaining its old name after the fall of
the Assyrian Empire : cp. the classical use of *Aa-(Tvpia, and see
on 11^^ — a passage which the present in other respects closely
resembles. — The outcasts] D^nian ; cp. 11^2 i63f:. ^p. the terms
in which Marduk proclaims Merodach-baladan 11. (728-701 b.c.)
king, " This is the shepherd who brings together the scattered "
{niupahhiru sepj^ati'. seeXAT^,p. 382 ; Gressmann, Eschat. p. 267.
12. nnK nnK*?] cp. nnnS nnK, Ec 7" : for the punctuation inn, see G-K.
130^: the form is not cstr. (cp. Gn 48^, 2 S 17^).
ADDITIONAL NOTE
ON THE STYLE AND LANGUAGE OF XXIV. -XXVII.
It has been claimed above (pp. 401 f.) that the style and language
of Is 24-27 independently point to the post-exilic origin of these
chapters. A number of peculiarities have been pointed out in
the Commentary and philological notes, and reference has been
made to the lists of peculiarities given by Smend and Cheyne.
But a synopsis, such as is given below, of some of the peculiarities
in the words used, or the meanings with which certain words are
used, and of certain significant forms, may enable the reader more
readily to appreciate the linguistic character of these chapters.
These peculiarities and the affinities with later writers are the
more noticeable because they occur in the work of a writer who
was well versed in Scripture (p. 401), and who, apparently,
endeavoured to reproduce the style of prophecy.
464 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
At the same time, it is important to bear in mind certain
dissimilarities between Is 24-27 and most late post-exilic writers.
The style of Is 24-27 forms no such transition as does Ec. to
the New Hebrew or Rabbinic style, nor is it marked (except in
corrupt passages) by that uncouthness * which characterises Chr.,
Dan., and Est. Yet even a writer as late as the 2nd cent. B.C.
could write with ease and fluency. "The language" of Ben
Sirach " is classical Hebrew, the syntax displaying no traces of
the peculiar New Hebrew constructions, such as occur, for
instance, so frequently in Ecclesiastes. . . . The style is occasion-
ally a little heavy, but this may sometimes be due to corruption
of the text. Otherwise (especially chs. 44 ff.) it is remarkably
easy and flowing. It stands throughout on an altogether higher
level than that, for instance, of Chronicles, Ecclesiastes, or the
Hebrew parts of Daniel." f
And not only in the general character of the style is Is 24--2 7
distinguished from most late post-exilic works except Sir. It
contains no Greek words such as (though few in number) form
such a significant feature of the Book of Daniel ; nor, unless
in meant secret^ and formed an original part of the text (but see
n. on 24^^), does it contain any Persian words, such as appear in
Ec, Cant., Est., Dan., Chr.,| and even, in spite of its generally
more classic style, in Sir.§ {e.g. n, secret). And, further. Is 24-27
may be said to be relatively free from such marked Aramaisms
as occur in Jon., Pss 139, 144, Sir., as well as in the late post-
exilic writings already mentioned; see Dr. LOT^ references in
Index i. s.v. "Aramaisms," and the glossary in Cowley and
Neubauer's edition of Ecclus.
Che. finds the style of chs. 24-27 artificial, and the chief
elements of its artificiality in " the singularity of many phrases
. . . the sixteen paronomasias (cp. esp. 24^- ^' *• ®' ^^-^^ 25^* '^^
26^ 27^), the numerous rhymes (24^- *• ^^ 25^- *• ^ 262- ^^ 20,
21
•Cp. Dr. LOTTOS.
t Cowley and Neubauer, The Original Hebrew of a portion of Ecclesi-
asticus {xxxix. jj-xlix. 11), pp. xiiif. ; cp. Norbert Peters, Hebr. Text des
Buches Ecclus. 85*. It must, however, be remembered that the judgment
cited above was based on chs. 39-49 only, and could hardly be passed on all
the portions of Sir. that have been discovered since. Still, even chs. 39^^-49^^
alone are between three and four times the length of Is 24-27.
X See Dr. LOT, references in Index, s.v. ** Persian Words."
§ But see p. 466 n.
I
NOTE ON STYLE AND LANGUAGE OF XXIV.-XXVU. 465
27^-^), the antitheses (24*- *• ^* 27^), the emphatic doubling ot
words * (24^^ 25^ 263- *• 1* 27^), characteristic also of the II Isaiah,
which indicate a consciousness of poverty in the writer (or
writers)." But mere artificiality of style does not closely define
the age of a writer; and the phenomena correctly described
by Che. do not justify any more precise conclusion than
that which he draws, viz., " that they point to an age much
later than that of the true Isaiah, and later even than that
of the . . . Second Isaiah." And so Smend, after citing
several singular expressions, discreetly leaves the definition of
time somewhat vague : " these modes of expression belong
essentially to rhetoric; but, taken in conjunction with the de-
pendence of the author elsewhere on other writers, they indicate
a conscious striving after originality, and thereby betray a later
age "(p. 197).
The synopsis that follows must be left to make good the
claim that the style and language of Is 24-27 independently
prove its post-exilic origin. They cannot, as the ideas probably
can, be safely used to show that Is 24-27 is a late post-exilic work.
And if the ideas contained in these chapters were compatible
with an early post-exilic date, it would be simplest to account for
the dissimilarities between the style of Is 24-27 and of such
works as Chr., Dan., Est., Ec, by the assumption that it is earlier
than they. If, however, the ideas compel us to seek the origin
of Is 24-27 in one of the centuries that saw the production of
Chr., Dan., Est., Ec, Sir., we must suppose that the author
having, like Ben Sirach, " much given himself to the reading of
the law, and the prophets, and the other books of our fathers,"
was as successful as Ben Sirach in avoiding the uncouthness of
Chr., Dan., Est., and somewhat more successful in preserving the
classicism of his vocabulary, avoiding (probably) altogether the
* But most of these were probably not present in the original text ; see
notes above on 24^^ 25^ 26^- '• ^^ 27^ The same is true of some of the parono*
masias (see n. 24'* ^•) ; yet the number of paronomasias remains strikingly
large. Moreover, the use made of paronomasia is different from Isaiah's use
of it (see p. 401), and more resembles that made of it by Ben Sirach (see a
collection of paronomasias in Sir. in Norbert Peters, Ecclus. p. 85*). So
far, indeed, is the writer from resembling the earlier prophet in his use of
paronomasia, that he might rather be described as being in this respect
a degenerate from Isaiah.
VOL. I. — 30
466 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
use of Persian words and the particle ^ (for 'ntJ'K), and making
less use of Aramaisms.*
To guard against misunderstanding, it may be well to state
explicitly that not every word or usage cited below, even though
no example of pre-exilic usage can be give?iy was necessarily un-
known before the exile. It is the multiplication of words or
usages for which little or no early evidence exists, but for which
Aramaic or late analogy can be found, that is significant.
i. Particles: j[
All that is peculiar in the use of the particles is confined S
the song in 26^'^^.
I. i>3, one of the Phoenician negatives (Cooke, NSI, p. 33),
is in Hebrew confixied to poetry; moreover, (i) it often occurs
aggregated 3-7 times in one passage : (2) it is particularly fre-
quent with the vb. 01)0 (Pss 10^ 16^ 17^ 21^ 30^ 46^ 93^9610 =
I Ch i630, Pr iqSO 128, Job 41^5 : ct. 1310 with «^, Ps 155 ii2«
125I 623-7, Is 4020 4i7). In OT it occurs 69 times (BDB),
and of these occurrences 7 are in Is 26^^* ^^' ^** ^^. Proof of
pre-exilic usage rests on two uncertain occurrences in Hosea
^16 (j^e^e), 72 (1^, but see ffir), and, as some would claim, on
certain occurrences in 1$ 33, Psalms, and Proverbs. Apart
from Is 26 and Hos. the usage is as follows (for references, see
Mandelkern, Cone. Minor) :
Is 1421
I
^^20. 21. 23. 24
7
35«
I
4024 (3 t.) 43^^ 44«^- (4 t.)
8
Pss. (10 (5 t.). 16 (4 t).
17 (3t.). 21 (3 t.). 30.
32. 46. 49. 58. 78. 93.
96. 104 (3t.). 119.
140 (2 t.). 141. 147)
31
Pr.
10
Job
I
iChi630( = Ps96io)
I
* It is important, however, in making this comparison, to allow for the
probability that the text of Ben Sirach has suffered considerable contamina-
tion in transmission, and that some of the late words may not have stood in
the original text.
NOTE ON STYLE AND LANGUAGE OF XXIV.-XXVIL 467
2. ciK, 26^- *• ". The use of this particle is very character-
istic of Is 40-48 (25 times): see Dr. LOT^ p. 240;
but the particle, mainly poetical, is not confined to
post-exilic literature : see, e.g.^ Jg 5**, Dt 338- ^o- 28.
3. \7y (26*) is (probably) etymologically the earlier form of
ny; yet in OT it occurs mainly, perhaps even ex-
clusively, in post-exilic writings: see Nu 24*®* **, Is
65I8, PSS 83I8 928 10423 132I2. 14 1476^ Job ^4 2o5t.
So also h^^ (for h^) occurs in Job 322 520 1522 29191.
'h^ (for Wi certainly occurs early (Gn 49I7-22 (^ times),
Nu 24^ (twice), Is 18*), but also twice in Dt 32^, 10
times in Psalms, 15 in Job, and 3 in Pr.
4. 1»i), 2614- 1« (but in v.i« rd. \h). Elsewhere as follows :
Pre-exilic Prophecy, Is 30^ (?), Hab 2^ (? Is 16* 23^)
Other pre-exilic Poetry, Gn 92«f-, Dt 33^ bis
Is 35^(?) I time
438 447(?)i6 4821 538 (?) 5 times
Pss. (2. 288 (but read IDvi')
44- 49- 55- 56. 58. 59-
64. 66. 73. 78. 80. 88.
89. 119) 22 „
Dt 32 2 „
Lam. 4 „
Pr 2320 I time
Job 10 times
Cp. G-K. 91/: "the termination 104 . . . like Md and
\'0^ occurs with the noun (as with the vb. § 58^) almost ex-
clusively in later poets." Of other particles, to the use of which
Che. (p. 148) draws attention, a brief notice may suffice : the
relative use of HT in 25^ is uncertain and indeed improbable ; 103
in 2510 (I^*re) is textually doubtful ; and 1D3 (2617. 18) and nint
(26^^) have no significance in reference to date.
ii. Forms and Constructions :
^an, unless it is an orthographic anomaly for nan, is a rather
striking Aramaism (see 26^0 phil. n.).
rini'py and in^li^ are both examples of the ending |i, }t attached
to the feminine n and not direct to the third radical. The only
other example of this in the Hebrew of the OT appears to be
468
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
inK^nj (2 K 18*), which Lagarde {BN, p. 205) treated as a loan-
word. On the other hand, in Aramaic the formation is far from
infrequent; Barth {JVB^ § 207^:) cites amongst others these
examples : l3nO''K (Dn 7^), jnii^y, ^5cn, Mandaitic KiNnuxn.
As against the significance of these facts, it should, however, be
observed that '\\Th\>V shows the peculiarly Hebrew development
of the old Semitic ending -%n (retained in Arabic, Assyr., and
Aramaic).
The hapax legomenon njKtt' (which is, however, from a root
early in use, see Is 6^1 17^2^ is of a formation for which NH
showed a particular fondness (Strack, Lehrbuch der Neuhebr.
Sprache, 39^:), yet which was not unknown in early Hebrew ; cp.
e.s", n>13, Ex 2 1 25. The new Hebrew nouns of this form are
mainly " nomina actionis."
The multiplication of intensive plurals is probably not in-
significant; for the instances cited in G-K. 124^ are largely late.
In Is 24-27 note D^:d« (26^), Dnsr^D (26^; see p. 471), ninD3
(2610), njriK'"' (26I8), T\^T2 (27II), and ?? miN (2613), and D^N (2415).
Che. (p. 149) claims that there is "neglect of Waw Con-
versive " ; but at most this neglect is very relative as compared
with the conspicuous neglect of it in Ec. (Dr. Tenses, § 133).
For the Impf. with Waw Conv., see 24^- ^^ 26^^ ; and for the Pf.
with Waw Conv., see 24!- 20. 22. 23 256. 7. 8. 10. 11 2621 271- lO- ^K
Moreover, the author of Is 24-27 does not discard the old con-
struction of Waw Conversive in favour of the later construction
with the simple Waw (yet see, perhaps, 24^*^), which is what
Koheleth does do (except in i^"^ 4^- '^) ; his avoidance of Waw
Conversive is mainly due to another characteristic of style less
indicative of date, viz., his fondness for asyndeton : cp. e.g.
24* (similarly 33^, but ct. Hos 4^, Jer 12*) 24^ (last three clauses)
11
2^7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 18. 14. 16. 19 gC^' 2. 3 265' ''• ^^' '^^' 1^* 1^' 1^*' ^27
But though there is no such preference for simple Waw as would
point to a late post-exilic date, the use of Waw Conversive can-
not be treated as proof positive of early post-exilic date ; Ben
Sirach also employs the construction : see Cowley and Neubauer,
p. xiii n.
iii. Vocabulary and meanings of words :
Certain peculiarities in the application of words, such as the
use of ppn (261^) of rising from the dead, pn^f (24^6) in reference
NOTE ON STYLE AND LANGUAGE OF XXIV.-XXVIL 469
to Israel, nna (24^) with a religious meaning (though not quite
the same as attaches to JV12 in Is 40-66 ; Dr. LOT 240) are
not classified here ; they are certainly significant, but their
significance falls to be treated under the religious ideas charac-
teristic of the writer (see above, pp. 399 f.).
Included in the list of hapax legomena given by Smend and
Cheyne, are several words which are textually uncertain, or
which may be glosses : such are Dnx (241^), m (24^*^), noDK
(2422), pK (25I), nen^ (Hophal, 26I), ppx (26i«), niiK (26i»).
nNDKD (Pilpel ?, 2 7^t). These are discussed above in the notes,
and need not be further considered here. It would be unwise to
attach any weight to them in determining the date of Is 24-27.
The following unique or very infrequent usages are mostly
commented on in the notes above, but may for convenience be
grouped together here : n^KK^ (see under ii., p. 468), VbB (27*!),
D''"i»fiJ^ (25^), matured vi'mt (elsewhere, Ues^ dregs\ nriD (denomina-
tive of HD, 256!), Dii> (2571), lanio (25101), n^ nuns (25"!). With
5]D^ used with h and the omission of the ace. (261^), cp. tiD* with
hv and the omission of the ace. in 2 Ch 9^ (ct. i K 10^).
The following are (A) words the use of which is suggestive of
late date ; (B) words used with peculiar meanings, or meanings
suggestive of late date. It is true most of these are attested
independently as occurring by or before the close of the exile :
but a few suggest a later date ; and in the aggregate, taken in
conjunction with those on pp. 466-9, they seem to suggest a date
as late as ± 400 B.C.
A.
I. D^iD^u', 26* (D^D^Jiy iivt). Cp. D^D^^y n^jK', Ps 77^;
'y nnn. Is 51^; 'y nyicri, 45^^; 'v b n\:ho, Ps
14513. Qio^jy pnv, Dn 9'^*. In such genitival phrases
the singular DTiy is a frequent alternative to the pi. in
the later literature : in the earlier literature it is exclu-
sively employed; see X:h\V ^^?, Gn 21 ^3; D^iy ny3J,
Gn 49^6; dSsiv nnt, Dt 2783.
Evidence of the early use of D^D^y (though not
in such phrases as those just cited) consists of i K
813 1^, D^ofjiy "ynyih ri30, ffi . . . eVl Kaivorrjro^ -, in
2 Ch 6^, where the passage is cited, (& renders eVi tovs
I
470 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
aiwva?. Some might claim Ps 61^ (D^ofjiy li^nxa mijx)
as another pre-exilic occurrence. But in any case
the great majority of the occurrences in OT are exilic
and post-exilic, see Is 45^^ {bis) 51^, Ps 776.8 14513^
Dn 9^4, Ec i^^t : and so in the Aramaic of Dn 7^8
2^4 we find N-'^^y, and in 2* (ct. i K t^i) 4* 39 ^lo
PDpy. The pi. of xh^ also occurs in C; see, e.g.^
Ex 15I8 K^iD^y ^ofjy^, and in Ps. \"i:}>vh is the regular
equivalent of n^iD. Cp. also CIS ii. 197^ a Nabataean
Inscription of i B.C., '^'ohv th^.
2. ny ny, 26* : also 65I8, Ps 83I8 928 13212- 1*1. On ny,
see above, i. 3.
3. 13, 27^: also Dn 5^ (Aramaic)t. See 27^ phil. n.
4. nmv, 24I1 : also Jer 142 46^2, Ps 1441*1 ; vb. HIV, Is 42111.
Note that in C mv, snvv render pyv, npyv the earlier
Hebrew equivalents of n\% nmv: see, e.g.^ Gn 27^*
f^ n!)ni npyv pyv^i, C «2-i Knmv ni^ : see also 2 K
212 4I, Jer 483.
5. yyi Kal and Hithpo. 241^ The Hithpo. is not a air. Xcy.,
as Sm. and Che. claim, if yyrinni) (Pr iS^*) be rightly
taken as Inf. Hithpo. of VV^ (see Dr. in Exp. Titnes^
xi. 230 f.). The use of the Aramaic ^T\ for the
Hebrew pn (yyi in 1^-y^ in f^) appeared in
Hebrew as early as Jer., if lyi in Jer iii^ is derived
from this yyi, and if the text of Jer 1512 can be
trusted. For the other occurrences (several question-
able) in OT, see 241^ phil. n.
6. IID (distinct from ns, whence IBH, to annut)^ Kal and
Hithpo., 241^1. In addition to ^y, cited above in
the phil. n., Ges-B. cites Aram. "1B"IQ, ; <^\ <^
7. iDDittnn, 241^1. Also Sir 332 tsoioriDi n-iin wiir o^n^ vh
?iT3K iyD»n? It is noticeable, too, that in 2E tDOIDDt^
several times renders the Kal of f^ ; see Ps 46^ 5^
Dnn i:iD3, % xniD pi3Di»nD na ; 60* f^ ""s . . . px
HDD, 5r nDDionx DnK . . . xynx; 9610 |^ b fj^n
ISIDD, 3r tDDlonn J<i>n bn. See also Ps 94I8 i2i3.
8. in^l^, 27I : also Ps 74I* 1042^, Job 3^ 4o25t. See above, ii.
9. D''3Dn, 27^: also 178 (gloss), Ezk. twice, Lev. once, and
Chr. three times. See 1 7^ n. (for references).
NOTE ON STYLE AND LANGUAGE OF XXIV.-XXVIL 47 1
10. inn, 24^^: also used by Jer. and later writers: see
Gn i2 (P), Dt 32I0, I S 1221 bis (probably D), Is 2921
(probably post-exilic) 34^^ 40^'^- 28 4129 ^^ 45^®'* 49*
594, Jer 423, Ps 107*0, Job 618 122* 26^1: also Sir 41^
11. nvTD, 24®: also io25 16^* 291'^t (probably all post-exilic),
Sir 4815. Ct. lyVD ; e.g. Gn 1920. The only other de-
rivative of ^/^ in OT is l^VT, Is 2810- 13 (an early
colloquialism?); cp., perhaps (Ges-B. p. 201), zirti,
a Canaanite gloss in Tell el-Amarna 127 (137)^;
Job 362; Dn 7^ (Aramaic). Early Hebrew regu-
larly, and late Hebrew also, employed "lyv and its
derivatives.
The particular phrase "lyTD {^IJN used in 24* is a
variant on the early Hebrew ISDO ^DD (e.g. Gn 34^0 ;
cp. "IDDD ^tJ'JN, Ezk 12^^). It may be worth observing
that whereas % keeps close to "ij;rD {jnJK, rendering
Tyra NK^3N (cp. Is 1025 161* 29^7 "i^j;r3=iyT0), it de-
parts further from "iBDD ^HD, rendering by p:»n oy
(cp. %, \\ I lV)n VNiNo), i?.^., in Gn 3430.
12. DM ••>«, 24^5; also ii", Est lo^f. The use of D^i^K pi. is
mainly late : the use in 24^* is somewhat different
from that in Is 40-66 (Dr. LOT 239).
13. now, 24^; see phil. n. : also Ezk 4 t. (9* 21"- 12)^
Ex 223 (P), La 14.8.11-21, Pr 292, Jl 1I8. But in
respect of this word Is 24-27 does not so much
approximate to Aramaic usage as Sir., who uses
the Hithpa. (12^2 25I8 3020) : cp. Ithpa. in % of Is 24^
2l2.
14. D"'-iK^ID, 267: also 33!^ 4519, Ps 98 172 532 758 9610 pga
99*, Pr i3 2» (?) 8« (23I6), Ca i* (710), Dn ii^, i Ch
29171. Cp. p. 468 (on the pi.).
B.
The following are examples of words used with peculiar mean-
ings, or with meanings that are found mainly or exclusively in
exilic or post-exilic writings :
I. 1V^, disposition^ 26^ (see n. there). Cp. Sir 27^ f*y TH,'^^ iy
K'-'K "IV^ i>y pnc^n p ns \T : also (with the context) 151*
472 COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
nv^ "lU in:n^"i DIK n13 . . • D'-nisx, and presumably
iy3i (30) 2 ill 232 3^3 (gee Smend, Strach). See, further,
Taylor, Sayings of the Jewish Fathers , pp. 37 f., 148-
152, 159; Jewish Encyc. xii. 601 f.; Porter, The
Yezer Hara^ in Biblical a?td Semitic Studies (Yale Bi-
centennial publications), 1901 ; and Charles, Test, of the
Twelve Patriarchs^ pp. t6i f. (on the V"in "IV^ and 1V^
SIDH, in the Twelve Patriarchs and Rabbinic Literature).
2. nac^j to appoifit (cp. in:, D^K>), 26121. gee n.
3. 5]^n (with pn as obj.), to transgress, 24^!. See n.
4. i>a3, Kal (probably meaning, to be born), 26^^! and Hiph.
(probably) to give birth to, 26^^!. Cp. ?W, aw untimely
birth, Ps 58^, Job 3^^, Koh 6^1 ; also (by conjecture)
Ex 21^2. Cp. Aram. fj^DX to give untimely birth to-.
e.g. Ex 2 1 22 51: J" Kmi)ii n^ n^^sixi = nni)^ i«vn J^;
Levy, jY^.5 and C^«/^. Worterbuch, s.v. i)D3, ^""D:.
5. ppT, Pual, /^ ^(f refined, 25^ (of wine t) : elsewhere (chiefly
of metals) : Kal, Job 28^ 3627 ; Piel, Mai 38; Pu., i Ch
28I8 294, Ps I2't.
6. Dno, height, as a synonym for heaven, 24^8 n. 21 n. (in 24"*
and 26^ the sense is probably different) ; also Mic 6^
(DUD ^rh>A), Jer 2580, 2 K 1922 = 15 3723 (?)^ La i^s,
Is 32I5 335 3814 4o26 5715 58*, Ps 78 18^7 ( = 2 S 22I'
hence Ps 144^) 68^9 7 ii9 93* 10220 ^^jjrjp Dn)0).t Note
also the use of D^OIID Ps 1481, Job i6i» 252 (vdud)
3i2t. The use of the sing, in Jer 17^2^ Ps 92® 10^,
and of the pi. in Is 33^^, is scarcely to be classed with
the foregoing; but see, further, Sir 161^ (lONn fjN
^:T3r' ^^ onoDi M-ino: nin^D) 43^ (i?« 'Dno) and 24^
{iv vij/rjXols = Dn»3 or D'^DnOS).
I
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